Improvement of the polyvalent Salmonella phage's O-1 diagnostic value by addition of a phage specific for the O groups E1-E4.

The usefulness of the polyvalent Salmonella phage O-1 as a first step diagnostic tool is again emphasized. 96.1% of all Salmonella strains are lysed. Its disadvantage of not lysing some 10-30% of strains belonging to the O groups E1-E4 has been eliminated by creating a mixture of the phage O-1 with a phage G47, (obtained from Gershman) which is highly active on OE strains. Thus the mixture exhibits a high OE-specificity without impairment of the O-1 polyvalency.