Shigella boydii serotypes in Egypt.

While Shigella boydii serotypes have been reported on numerous occasions from many parts of the world (Weil and Saphra, 1953), they rarely have comprised more than a small proportion of the total number of Shigella found, and knowledge of their distribution, cultural characteristics, immunological relationships and pathogenicity is incomplete in some respects. This is particularly true of the more recently described provisional serotypes, some of which have been isolated only a few times, whose descriptions have been based on very few cultures, and whose association with diarrheal disease has not been clearly defined. During the course of studies in shigellosis in Egypt between 1951 and 1954 more than 100 cultures of S. boydii serotypes, provisional S. boydii serotypes, and organisms proposed for addition to Shigella subgroup C were recovered. The present report is concerned with a description of some of the biochemical and serological reactions of these cultures and with observations on the possible pathogenicity of those isolated from human sources.