One hundred and ten water samples collected from the rivers, sewages and slaughterhouse in Fukuyama city in the eastern district of Hiroshima prefecture were examined for Salmonella organisms,from October 1967 to December 1968.
It was found that 23.6% (13/55) of the rivers, 22.2% (8/36) of the sewages, and 36.8% (7/19) of the sewages of the slaughterhouse were contaminated by this organism.
These results show that the percentage of contamination is smaller in Fukuyama city than that in a large cities,such as Tokyo or Osaka.
Thirty three strains of Salmonella isolated from water samples were divided into the following 11 serotypes: S. derby,S. typhimurium,S. montevideo,S. thompson,S. mikawashima,S. narashino,S. enteritidis,S. meleagridis,S. give,S. senftenberg and S. westerstede.
It might be presumed that the environmental contamination of the area by the organisms is increasing gradually,since new types of Salmonella,e.g. S. westerstede etc. never found in Hiroshima prefecture before,were isolated in the area.