National Consiliary Laboratory for Diphtheria, Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority, Veterinärstraße 2, 85764, Oberschleißheim, Germany.
Bavarian Health and Food Safety Authority, Oberschleißheim, Germany.
Infection. 2016 Aug;44(4):441-5. doi: 10.1007/s15010-015-0846-y. Epub 2015 Sep 30.
Corynebacterium diphtheriae, the classical causative agent of diphtheria, is considered to be nearly restricted to humans. Here we report the first finding of a non-toxigenic C. diphtheriae biovar belfanti strain in a free-roaming wild animal.
The strain obtained from the subcutis and mammary gland of a dead red fox (Vulpes vulpes) was characterized by biochemical and molecular methods including MALDI-TOF and Multi Locus Sequence Typing. Since C. diphtheriae infections of animals, usually with close contact to humans, are reported only very rarely, an intense review comprising also scientific literature from the beginning of the 20th century was performed.
Besides the present case, only 11 previously reported C. diphtheriae animal infections could be verified using current scientific criteria.
Our report is the first on the isolation of C. diphtheriae from a wildlife animal without any previous human contact. In contrast, the very few unambiguous publications on C. diphtheriae in animals referred to livestock or pet animals with close human contact. C. diphtheriae carriage in animals has to be considered as an exceptionally rare event.
白喉棒状杆菌，经典的白喉病原体，被认为几乎只存在于人类中。在这里，我们报告了首例在自由放养的野生动物中发现的非产毒白喉棒状杆菌 belfanti 生物型菌株。
从一只死亡红狐（ Vulpes vulpes ）的皮下组织和乳腺中获得的菌株，通过 MALDI-TOF 和多位点序列分型等生化和分子方法进行了鉴定。由于动物的白喉感染，通常与人类密切接触，仅非常罕见地报告，因此进行了一次强烈的回顾，其中还包括 20 世纪初的科学文献。
除了目前的病例外，仅使用当前科学标准验证了 11 例先前报告的动物白喉棒状杆菌感染。
我们的报告是首例从无任何先前人类接触的野生动物中分离出白喉棒状杆菌的报告。相比之下，关于动物白喉棒状杆菌的极少数明确出版物涉及与人密切接触的牲畜或宠物动物。动物携带白喉棒状杆菌必须被视为极罕见的事件。
