[The bacteriological diagnosis of vibrio fetus infection in man (author's transl)].

A synopsis of the present classification of Vibrio fetus is given (tab. 1, 2). Besides the presentation of the importance of these bacteria in veterinary medicine, 97 human infections have been published up to now. The geographic, age and sex distribution of these cases and the material out of which the pathogens were isolated is presented (tab. 3, 4). The clinical picture is summarized. For the culture of Vibrio fetus liver broth as described by TAROZZI incubated for at least 3-4 days was suitable as enrichment medium. The necessity of a prolonged incubation period was shown by results of continous registration of the optical density of growing Vibrio fetus cultures (fig. 1). If specimen is plated out on solid culture media before enrichment, the suitable media are chocolate agar, brain-heart infusion and Bacto-tryptose agar. For subcultures the DST-agar is also useful. Solid media cultures should be incubated microaerobically with 10% CO2 added. The resistance to Cephalothin of Vibrio fetus can be applied for selection on solid culture media. The metabolic activities of different Vibrio fetus biotypes were compared. A hitherto not reported metabolic activity, the hydrolysis of palmitic acid ester, is described (tab. 5). In the tube dilution test Vibrio fetus strains were sensitive to Gentamycin, Streptomycin, Ampicillin, Ciclacillin and Carbenicillin. They were resistent to Penicillin G, Cephalotin and Sulfonamid and showed borderline sensitivities to Tetracyclin, Kanamycin and Chloramphenicol (tab. 6).