A rural worker infected with a bovine-prevalent genotype of Campylobacter fetus subsp. fetus supports zoonotic transmission and inconsistency of MLST and whole-genome typing

• Published in: European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases Vol. 34; no. 8; pp. 1593 - 1596
• Main Authors: Iraola, G., Betancor, L., Calleros, L., Gadea, P., Algorta, G., Galeano, S., Muxi, P., Greif, G., Pérez, R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.08.2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animals; Anti-Bacterial Agents - therapeutic use; Antibiotics; Bacteremia - diagnosis; Bacteremia - drug therapy; Bacteremia - microbiology; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Bone marrow; Campylobacter; Campylobacter fetus; Campylobacter fetus - classification; Campylobacter fetus - genetics; Campylobacter fetus - isolation & purification; Campylobacter Infections - diagnosis; Campylobacter Infections - drug therapy; Campylobacter Infections - microbiology; Cattle; Cellulitis; Cluster Analysis; Disease transmission; Fetuses; Genomes; Genotype; Genotype & phenotype; Humans; Infertility; Internal Medicine; Lymphoma; Male; Medical Microbiology; Microbiology; Middle Aged; Molecular Sequence Data; Multilocus Sequence Typing; Neoplasms - complications; Occupational Exposure; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Rural Population; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Sequence Homology; Treatment Outcome; Zoonoses; Zoonoses - diagnosis; Zoonoses - drug therapy; Zoonoses - microbiology; Uruguay; Mantle Cell Lymphoma; Zoonotic Transmission; MLST Scheme; Bendamustine; Core Genome
• ISSN: 0934-9723; 1435-4373
• DOI: 10.1007/s10096-015-2393-y

Whole-genome characterisation in clinical microbiology enables to detect trends in infection dynamics and disease transmission. Here, we report a case of bacteraemia due to Campylobacter fetus subsp. fetus in a rural worker under cancer treatment that was diagnosed with cellulitis; the patient was treated with antibiotics and recovered. The routine typing methods were not able to identify the microorganism causing the infection, so it was further analysed by molecular methods and whole-genome sequencing. The multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) revealed the presence of the bovine-associated ST-4 genotype. Whole-genome comparisons with other C. fetus strains revealed an inconsistent phylogenetic position based on the core genome, discordant with previous ST-4 strains. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first C. fetus subsp. fetus carrying the ST-4 isolated from humans and represents a probable case of zoonotic transmission from cattle.