BACTEREMIA CAUSED BY A RECENTLY DESCRIBED NOVEL DESULFOVIBRIO SPECIES

An obligately anaerobic, fastidious, slowly growing, spiral, gram-nega tive bacterium was isolated from the blood of a 75-year old man with a cute onset of pyrexia, The patient responded rapidly to appropriate an tibiotic therapy. Extensive investigation failed to detect a focus for the infection. Phenotypically, the organism was consistent with Desul fovibrio species, Microscopic investigation revealed an organism with a vibrioid or spirillioid morphology with rapidly progressive motility by means of a single polar flagellum, Biochemically, the organism pro duced large amounts of H2S and contained desulfovirdin. The 16S rRNA g ene sequence of the organism was found to be most similar to those of members of the genus Desulfovibrio, with identical sequence homology t o the newly proposed species described by Tee et al. (W. Tee, M. Dyall -Smith, W. Woods, and D. Eisen, J. Clin, Microbiol, 34:1760-1764, 1996 ). This is a second unrelated isolation of this novel species from two widely different locations in Australia, The two isolates show some p henotypic differences, indicating that they are different strains of t he same species.