Zeitsehrift f.

Hygiene 149, 122--125 (1963)

Medical Research Institute, Colombo, Ceylon

Salmonella in Desiccated Coconut

By
T.VELAUDAPILLAI~Ko NITIANANDA and KAMINI MEEDENIYA
(Received January 3, 1963)
While investigating into the cause of a typhoid epidemic in South Australia in
1953 "W~so~r and MACKENZIE (1955) found that desiccated coconut from Papua
was contaminated with 14 types of salmonellae and the desiccated coconut from
Ceylon was free from these bacteria. The first adverse report on Ceylon desiccated
coconut came from Western Australia by Kov•cs in 1959. He found salmonellae
in nine out of 35 samples and GALBRAI'rf{,HOBBS, SMITHand TOMLINSONin England
reported (1960) salmonellae in 78 out of 851 samples of desiccated coconut. Of these
15 were Salm. paratyphi B. AZ~D~RSON(1960) by means of phage typing incriminated
Ceylon desiccated coconut as the source of infection of an outbreak of paratyphoid
fever in Liverpool, the same year. SEMPLE,PERRY and GRAttA~,I (1961) also in
Liverpool traced the source of paratyphoid fever to desiccated coconut from
Ceylon. SE]~L~Z, GRAnA~Iand DUTTO~r (1961) and PIcKuP and COLENSO(1961) tOO
found the Ceylon product to be contaminated with salmonellae. All of them ex-
pressed great concern about the presence of Salm. paratyphi B.
T h e u n f a v o u r a b l e r e p o r t s affected t h e sales a n d price o f t h e article
and, t h e r e b y , t h e foreign e x c h a n g e earnings of Ceylon. T h e i m p o r t i n g
countries were c o n t e m p l a t i n g t h e b a n n i n g of d e s i c c a t e d c o c o n u t f r o m
Ceylon a n d were looking o u t for o t h e r sources. To m e e t this situation,
t h e G o v e r n m e n t of Ceylon i n t r o d u c e d L e g i s l a t i o n (1961) t o enforce
m i n i m u m h y g i e n i c s t a n d a r d s for t h e m a n u f a c t u r e of d e s i c c a t e d co-
conut. This p a p e r describes th e results o f the e x a m i n a t i o n s d o n e a f t e r
t h e e n f o r c e m e n t of t h e regulations.

Materials and Methods

Samples of desiccated coconut from the cooling table, the sifter and bags
(before being stitched) were collected into three diothene bags from each mill mann-
facturing desiccated coconut by officers of the Ceylon Coconut Board. The diothcne
bags were then sealed by sellotape and despatched to the laboratory. About 20 g of
the pooled sample from each mill were inoculated into 100 ml each of selenite broth
(Difco) and tetrathionate broth (Oxoid). After incubating for 18--24 hours at
37 ~ C, the broth cultures were plated on Wilson and Blair's medium (Oxoid) and
Desoxycholate citrate agar (Oxoid). Suspicious colonies were picked into combined
urea soft agar Kligler's medium (VELAUDAI~LLLAI1962) and incubated at 37~
for 24 hours. Organisms giving reactions similar to those of salmonellae were
identified serologically. Table 1 gives the list of salmonellae that were isolated from
mid July to mid September 1962.
O u t of a t o t a l o f 1363 samples e x a m i n e d 31 (2.3~ were p o s i t i v e for
salmonellae. Salm. typhimurium was i s o l a t e d t e n times, Salm. ~araty~hi B
 Salmonella in desiccated coconut 123

and Salm. 8en/tenberg each five times, Salm. angoda and Salm. waycross
each three times, Salm. newport twice, Salm. matopenl, Salm. perth and
Salm. weliIcade each once.

Table 1. Organisms isolated Table 2. Distribution of Salmonellae

From desiccated coconut between according to mills
mid July and mid September 1962
Total No. Of samples examined 1363 I~IilI Organism No. of times

Organism No. of times D~ Salm. sen/tenberff

D.V. Salm. paratyphi B
Balm. angoda 3 Salm. perth
Salm. matopeni 1 Salm. waycross
Balm. newport 2 L.I~o Salm. newport
Balm. paratyphi B 5 Salm. paratyphi JB
Salm. perth 1 L.M. Salm. paratyphi B
Salm. senftenberg 5 Salm. matopenl
Salm. typhimurium 10 Salm. welikade
Salm. waycross 3 K~176 Salm. sen/tenberg
Salm. welikade 1 K.T. Salm. typhimurium
M.A. Salm. waycross
Total 31 M.B. Salm. angoda
P. Salra. typhimurum
I~.U. Salm. waycross

Table 2 shows the distribution of the organisms according to tlle

mills.
two mills three different serotypes were isolated, in one two and
from the rest one type only.
During the period referred to above, the samples were collected only
twice a week from each of the 60 mills that had then been registered and
salmonellae were isolated from the products of ten of these mills. After
the samples were collected, the desiccated coconut was despatched by
the millers to the stores of the shippers. The consignments reported con-
taminated with salmonellae were withdrawn from the stores and sent
for oil milling. I f requested, resampling was carried out at the shippers
stores from the batch reported as contaminated, before the lot was sent
for off milling. A second examination was carried out on seven occasions
and each time the first findings were confirmed. These results were not
included in the schedule.

Discussion
Coconut palms in estates are usually manured with cattle and
artificial manure. Sc~I~D and V w L A V D ~ L A I (1953) reported t h a t
salmonellae were present in the faeces of domesticated animals. There-
fore, these organisms must necessarily be present in the soil of the
coconut estates. The surface contamination of the nut when it falls on