First case of Francisella bacteraemia in Western Australia

Max Aravena-Román; Adam Merritt; Timothy J J Inglis

doi:10.1016/j.nmni.2015.10.004

First case of Francisella bacteraemia in Western Australia

New Microbes New Infect. 2015 Oct 22:8:75-7. doi: 10.1016/j.nmni.2015.10.004. eCollection 2015 Nov.

Authors

Max Aravena-Román¹, Adam Merritt², Timothy J J Inglis¹

Affiliations

¹ Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, PathWest Laboratory Medicine of Western Australia, Nedlands, Australia ; School of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Australia.
² Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, PathWest Laboratory Medicine of Western Australia, Nedlands, Australia.

Abstract

Francisella species are Gram-negative, nonmotile, pleomorphic coccobacilli, facultative intracellular fastidious bacteria. We report the isolation of a Francisella-like species from a blood culture collected from a 44-year-old bacteraemic patient in Perth, Western Australia. The organism was identified to species level by 16S rRNA sequencing and by fatty acid methyl esters analysis. The strain genotypically resembled Francisella hispaniensis, a species previously isolated from human blood in Spain.

Keywords: Fatty acids; Francisella; gene sequencing; sepsis; taxonomy.

Publication types

Case Reports