Zoonoses associated with petting farms and open zoos.

The popularity of open farms and petting zoos has increased markedly over the last 5 years, with most children in developed countries now having the opportunity to visit such a facility at some stage in their childhood, either through school or family visits. The open access policy of these establishments allows visitors to be in direct contact with animals such as sheep (lambs), goats, cats (kittens), dogs (puppies), and birds and to have the opportunity to feed such animals. This contact may lead to the transmission of microbial pathogens from animals to humans, e.g., Escherichia coli O157:H7, resulting in human disease. This review outlines the causal organisms associated with such zoonoses, a description of previous outbreaks at farms and zoos, as well as infection control measures to help prevent such zoonotic infections.

Central line-related bacteremia due to Roseomonas mucosa in a patient with diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

A 42-year-old male patient with a history of diffuse large B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (DLBCL) developed a central line-related bacteremia due to the presence of a Gram-negative bacillus, which was difficult to identify conventionally. Sequencing of a partial region of the 16S rRNA gene identified the organism as Roseomonas mucosa with a homology score of 100% with 1003 bases called. Due to difficulties with the phenotypic identification of this genus, coupled with its emergence in line-related bacteremia in hematology patients with malignancy, Roseomonas spp. should be considered in cases of line-related infection in such patients with atypical Gram-negative organisms. Although several cases have been reported in the literature of line-related sepsis due to Roseomonas gilardii, only a few cases have been reported of Roseomonas mucosa infection in patients with hematological malignancy. This report highlights the benefits of the integration of a sequence-based typing approach in the identification of difficult-to-identify bacterial isolates employing partial regions of the 16S rRNA gene. Continued routine adoption of such techniques by clinical diagnostic laboratories may prove beneficial for the correct identification of blood-borne infections, as well as for the correct epidemiological characterization of unusual causal agents of bacteremia in immunocompromised individuals.

Improved laboratory diagnosis of bacterial and fungal infections in patients with hematological malignancies using PCR and ribosomal RNA sequence analysis.

During October 1999 to November 2000, 98 blood culture specimens from the same number of febrile episodes originating from 49 patients with hematological malignancies were examined for the presence of eubacteria and fungi based on 16S rRNA gene and the 5.8, 18 and 28S rRNA combined with in vitro PCR amplification and sequencing, in addition to conventional blood culture laboratory techniques. Nineteen of the samples were associated with positive blood cultures. Eubacterial (16S rRNA) PCR detected bacterial DNA in 26 febrile episodes, i.e. in an additional 7 febrile episodes than blood-culture alone. The species identified by partial 16S rRNA gene sequencing were as follows Staphylococcus spp (n = 6), Staphylococcus epidermidis (n = 5), Acinetobacter spp (n = 5), Escherichia coli (n = 2), Enterobacter agglomerans (n = 2), Campylobacter spp (n = 1), Citrobacter spp (n = 1), Corynebacterium spp (n = 1), Enterobacter faecium (n = 1), Ralstonia spp (n = 1), Acidovorax spp. (n = 1) and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (n = 1). Gram-positive bacteria were found in 12/27 (44.6%) and gram-negative bacteria were found in 15/27 (55.6%). After optimization of a PCR-based fungal detection method, none of the febrile episodes were shown to be attributable to fungi. The results of this study suggest that fungi are not common causal agents of febrile episodes in patients with a hematological malignancy at this centre and that molecular techniques can augment cultural methods in the diagnosis of causal agents of bacteremia in patients, so that appropriate antibiotic regimens may be commenced in patients with culture-negative episodes of infection.

Identification of a novel alpha-proteobacterium causing bacteraemia in an immunocompetent patient.

An 89-year male with pyrexia and suspected bacteremia was admitted to hospital, where a Gram-negative rod was identified from blood culture. The organism was difficult to identify phenotypically and the resulting sequencing of a 559 bp section of the 16S rRNA gene did not have a high homology score (>97.0%) with any deposited GenBank accession numbers and hence was not able to be assigned to a species within any genus. Given that the isolate was a member of the alpha subclass of the Proteobacteria but did not fall into any of the known genera with more than 93.7% homology (Brucella, Rhizobium, Ochrobactrum, Agrobacterium), we believe this isolate to represent a novel alpha-proteobacterium, which was the cause of bacteraemia in this patient.