humans.alvei, a probable cause of diarrhea in

alveiis amemberofthefamilyEnterobacteriaceaeandcanbeisolated fromvarious anatomical sites in humansand from various environmental sources (8). A study inJapan has reported that it could be isolated from approxi-mately 13%offecal specimens fromnormalhealthy individ-uals (11), andto ourknowledgeit has neverbeenimplicated