Is Infantile gastro-enteritis fundamentally a milk-borne infection?

Abstract

1. One per cent of samples of farm milk were found to contain pathogenic varieties of Bacterium coli of the O groups associated with infantile gastroenteritis.2. Unheated cows' milk is a dangerous food for babies.3. Summer diarrhoea was probably, for the most part, milk-borne infection by special O groups of Bact. coli.4. Thirteen per cent of chickens on farms were found to be excreting Bact. coli of the O groups associated with infantile gastro-enteritis but only a few of the strains possessed H antigens of varieties known to have an association with human disease.5. Possible reservoirs of infection cannot be adequately searched for until a selective method is devised to aid the separation of pathogenic O groups of Bact. coli from the non-pathogenic.