Sédentarité de la microflore digestive chez les poissons

Digestive microflora sedentariness in fish is analysed in function of criteria defined by Savage (1977) as indispensable in order that bacteria isolated from the digestive tract of homeothermic vertebrates should be called autochthonous. Informations relative to species of fish living in sea-water and freshwater are still fragmentary. According to these criteria, only the genus Enterbacter could be qualified as autochthon­ous taxon in Mugil cephalus. The other bacterial groups are part of an allochthonous flora likely to be temporarily sedentary. To define criteria of autochthony in fish involves the knowledge of microflora functions which might be very different from those described in homeotherms.