No abstract

Monoclonal antibodies produced to Salmonella enteritidis outer membrane proteins were screened against 57 Salmonella serovars and several related enterobacteria. Those detecting all Salmonella serovars and none of the related enterobacteria were used in a microtitre plate antigen capture ELISA to screen clinical samples. Sixty-one of 2100 samples yielded salmonellas after incubation for 24 h in selective media by conventional culture. Of these 58 were detected by the ELISA. Sixty-five false positives by ELISA were found to be Enterobacter spp. The results show the potential of this ELISA to eliminate a large proportion of the salmonella-negative cultures at an early stage.

A mutant strain of Mycobacterium aurum was isolated that produced mainly lycopene (>80%) with a total carotenoid content of 1.2 mg g(-1) dry biomass when grown on yeast extract and glucose. Lycopene content of the cells could be significantly increased, up to 7.4 mg g(-1) biomass, by growing the cells at suboptimal initial culture pH (pH 6-6.4) or by using high salt concentration (85 mM NaCl) in the culture medium, although a 25-40% decrease in biomass production occurred in both cases. Highestproductivity (4 mg lycopene l(-1) d(-1)) was obtained by cultivating the cells at pH 6.

No abstract

Vibrio cholerae is a serious public health problem worldwide, but in the UK, V. cholerae infections are rare. Here, we report a case of V. cholerae bacteraemia in an elderly patient. To our knowledge, this is the first non-travel-related V cholerae bacteraemia in the UK.