LACTOBACILLI AND BACTEREMIA IN SOUTHERN FINLAND, 1989-1992

In order to assess the potential of lactobacilli to cause serious infe ctions, we studied the prevalence of bacteremia due to Lactobacillus s pecies during a 4-year period (1989-1992) in southern Finland, which h as a population of about 2.5 million. Among 3,317 blood culture isolat es, lactobacilli were identified in eight patients, five of whom had a severe disease predisposing to bacteremic complications. The eight st rains isolated were identified to the species level and typed by carbo hydrate fermentation tests and by direct sequencing of enzymatically a mplified 16S rRNA. The results did not provide evidence that any parti cular species or subspecies of Lactobacillus was the cause of the infe ctions; no infections caused by isolates similar to the recently intro duced dairy probiotic strain, Lactobacillus GG (ATCC 53103), were obse rved. The data show an infrequent association of lactobacilli with bac teremic infections in spite of the ubiquitous presence of these organi sms in the gastrointestinal tract and their widespread consumption in fermented milks; thus, there is strong evidence that their pathogenic potential is very low.