Comparison between plasmids of Salmonella and other enterobacteria isolated from the same patients.

The ecology of R plasmids was studied in the intestinal flora of 19 patients with salmonellosis without antibiotic treatment. The plasmids found in the Salmonella strains and the accompanying non-pathogenic Enterobacteriaceae were characterized in each patient. We determined the transferability by conjugation, the fi character and the incompatibility group and did enzyme restriction analysis of these plasmids. The results obtained showed that S. typhimurium is the species of this genus with the highest incidence of R plasmids, and Escherichia coli among the non-pathogenic Enterobacteriaceae. The plasmids found in Salmonella are different from the plasmids found in the other Enterobacteriaceae in fi character (50% fi+ in Salmonella and 5% in the other Enterobacteriaceae) and incompatibility group (33% belong to the FII group in Salmonella plasmids and none on the other Enterobacteriaceae), thereby expressing a different origin.