House shrews (Suncus murinus) and rats (Rattus rattus diardii), trapped during a survey period from July 1978 to December 1979 and thereafter on a random basis, from residences within and outside the Veterinary Research Institute, Ipoh, Malaysia campus, were bacteriologically examined for the presence of salmonellae. Of the 55 shrews and 8 rats examined, 39 (71%) shrews and 2 (25%) rats were found positive. There were 46 Salmonella isolates which included 5 dual infections. These were serotyped as S. weltevreden, S. bareilly, S. stanley, S. augustenborg, S. hvittingfoss, S. emek, S. paratyphi B, S. ohio and S. matopeni in order of frequency of isolation. The significance of these findings especially with regard to salmonellosis in man and animals is discussed.
During the 5-year (1981-5) surveillance period, 2322 salmonella isolations were recorded from animals and other non-human sources in Peninsular Malaysia. This was an increase of 356% over the preceding 5-year period. The 83 serotypes isolated were recovered from 41 sources. Of these 34 were new serotypes bringing the total number of serotypes isolated from non-human sources to date up 97. Food animals and edible animal products accounted for 92.2% of the total isolations, with cattle and beef accounting for 70% of the total. Salmonella dublin was the most frequently isolated serotype, whereas S. typhimurium had the widest zoological distribution. More than 80% of the non-human salmonella serotypes have also been reported in man in this country.
The shedding pattern of the protozoan parasite, Blastocystis hominis, is investigated in man and in experimental animal infections. The shedding pattern of the vacuolar and cystic forms of Blastocystis hominis in infected individuals have been shown in the present study to be irregular. The study shows that there is marked fluctuation in the shedding of the parasite from day to day, varying from as high as 17 to 0 per x40 microscopic field. The cystic stages when estimated in 8 Blastocystis-infected individuals ranged from as high as 7.4x10(5) cysts per gram of stool to 0. The shedding of cystic and vacuolar forms observed over a period of 20 days in experimentally-infected Wistar rats were not only shown to be irregular but the amount varied from host to host. The study has important diagnostic implications in that the stool samples must be collected more than once from patients showing clinical signs and symptoms to eliminate the cause of it to Blastocystis. The study also shows that there are asymptomatic individuals who pass a large amount of cysts as such individuals should be treated to prevent transmission to others.