BORDETELLA HOLMESII-LIKE ORGANISMS ASSOCIATED WITH SEPTICEMIA, ENDOCARDITIS, AND RESPIRATORY-FAILURE

We recovered an unusual bacterial strain from blood or sputum of three patients with septicemia, endocarditis, and/or respiratory failure. T he three isolates were thin, curved, gram-negative, light brown, pigme nt-producing bacilli with variable catalase activity. They were asacch arolytic, oxidase-negative, nonmotile, and fastidious. Identification was not possible on the basis of these characteristics alone or in com bination with cellular fatty acid profiles. Nucleic acid amplification and sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA gene revealed that all three is olates were identical and most closely related to the emerging pathoge n Bordetella holmesii, diverging from the published sequence at three nucleotide positions (99.8% similarity). Isolation of a B. holmesii-li ke pathogen from sputum suggests that, in addition to producing septic emia, the organism may inhabit the respiratory tract like other Bordet ella species.