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Fifteen patients with coeliac disease diagnosed in infancy and early childhood between 1959 and 1971 were included in the study. The primary diagnosis was made on the basis of typical symptoms and signs, stool examination for fat, xylose test and clinical and laboratory improvement after introduction of gluten-free diet. All patients were challenged with gluten for a minimum of 4 weeks to 4 years before a peroral proximal jejunal biopsy was performed between 1973 and 1976. The biopsy specimen showed changes consistent with coeliac disease in all patients. Gluten-free diet induced again clinical recovery and was recommended as a life-long diet. The patients were reinvestigated after 15-18 years (mean 17 years) and 13 biopsies were evaluated. Five of these biopsy specimens showed variable histopathological changes. Only 5 patients were still on a strict gluten-free diet. There was no correlation between the presence of gastro-intestinal symptoms and abnormal biopsies. All patients had haematological tests within the normal range. Anti-gliadin IgA levels above the upper normal limit were found in 2 out of 3 patients with grade IV histopathological changes in the mucosa, and in 1 of the patients on a normal diet who refused to have a biopsy performed. The patients' knowledge of their disease was evaluated, and suitable follow-up programs for coeliac patients are discussed.

In April, 1973, an acute disease with a high rate of mortality appeared in a flock of 233 ducks and geese at a private game farm. Most of the flock (220) were black ducks (Anas rubripes) and mortality was restricted to them. In May, the remaining live birds were placed in isolation but mortality continued in black ducks and occurred in other species. The overall rate of mortality for black ducks was 93% and the case fatality rate was 97%. No hemorrhaging from either the bill or vent was observed. The most commonly observed gross lesions were extensive fibrino-necrotic plaques covering the mucosal surface of the esophagus, posterior colon and cloaca. Petechial and ecchymotic hemorrhages on visceral organs, particularly the heart, were also common. Virus isolation was attempted from tissues of three black ducks. Duck plague virus was isolated from liver, kidney, spleen and intestine of each. Sixteen black ducks survived the outbreak. Seven of these birds had significant levels of neutralizing antibody to duck plague virus.

One hundred and twenty-five of 173 people who ate at a picnic and/or a smorgasbord prepared by a bar-restaurant in a Midwestern town in September 1973 developed diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and other symptoms 23 hours (median time) later. Eleven were hospitalized. Stool cultures from 18 ill individuals grew Salmonella infantis, Salmonella agona, and Salmonella schwarzengrund. Stool cultures from 5 of 8 restaurant employees grew S. infantis or S. agona. Cultures of remaining foods and food-contact surfaces were negative. Food-specific attack rates, based on interviews with 121 eaters, implicated potato salad and chicken dressing as vehicles of transmission, both likely contaminated when prepared in pans that shortly before contained uncooked, chicken pieces suspected to have harbored salmonellae. Chickens were eventually traced to 3 farms where feed samples were found to contain Salmonella typhimurium and Salmonella cubana, raising the possibility that other feed samples may have contained the serotypes responsible for the outbreak. The main control measure was temporarily closing the food service, which was to have catered a large church picnic the next day. The outbreak had an economic impact estimated at $28,733.