R. Podschun et al., Incidence of Klebsiella species in surface waters and their expression of virulence factors, APPL ENVIR, 67(7), 2001, pp. 3325-3327
To investigate the occurrence of different Klebsiella spp. in aquatic envir
onments, a total of 208 samples of natural surface waters was examined. Fro
m half (53%) of these samples, 123 Klebsiella strains were isolated, the mo
st common species being Klebsiella pneumoniae. A comparison of these isolat
es to a group of 207 clinical ii. pneumoniae isolates demonstrated that wat
er isolates of K. pneumoniae, unlike those of K. oxytoca and K. planticola,
are as capable as clinical isolates of expressing putative virulence facto
rs such as serum resistance and capsular polysaccharides, pill, and siderop
hores.