Paratyphoid in Man and Cattle

Salmonella paratyphi B, phage type Taunton, caused generalized subclinical infection of cows and cases of human enteric fever at a dairy farm. The cattle were probably infected from a stream receiving the sewage effluent of a village in which a chronic carrier lived. At the same time as the farm outbreak a water-borne outbreak of human paratyphoid fever occurred in villages several miles away. The water supply was chlorinated and no failure of its treatment had been detected. S. paratyphi B, type Taunton, was isolated from the septic tank of a cottage near the water source and from soil over a break in the effluent pipe. Several inhabitants of the cottage worked at the infected dairy farm and one showed serological evidence of infection.Attention is drawn to the lack of statutory powers which could be applied to prevent the spread of the disease from the dairy herd and to the hazards of simple chlorination in the absence of additional safeguards of a water supply liable to pollution by surface water.