Fly Reservoir Associated with Wohlfahrtiimonas Bacteremia in a Human

Abstract

Wohlfahrtiimonas species bacteria were isolated from the bloodstream of a patient with septicemia and wound myiasis. Environmental investigations identified a Wohlfahrtiimonas sp. among insects in the Americas and in a previously undescribed vector, the green bottle fly (Lucilia sericata). The isolates possibly represent a new species within the genus Wohlfahrtiimonas.

Keywords: 16S ribosomal RNA; Calliphoridae; Diptera; Lucilia sericata; MALDI-TOF; United States; Washington; Wohlfahrtiimonas; bacteremia; bacteria; green bottle fly; larvae; mass spectrometry; myiasis; pulsed-field gel electrophoresis.

Figure 1

Green bottle fly (Lucilla sericata), caught inside home of patient with septicemia and wound myiasis in Washington, USA. The fly laid eggs inside a sterile container, and a Wohlfahrtiimonas spp. were isolated from a larva hatched from these eggs. Photo courtesy of T. Whitworth.

Figure 2

Neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree of 16S rRNA gene sequences of Wohlfahrtiimonas spp. isolate from a patient with septicemia and wound myiasis in Washington, USA (laboratory identification no. 22912), isolates from flies and fly larvae (laboratory identification nos. 22913, 22914, 22915), and the most closely related type strains. Numbers at nodes denote bootstrap percentages based on 1,000 replicates; only values >50% are shown. GenBank accession numbers are given in parentheses. Bold indicates strains isolated in this study. The tree was rooted with Paenalcaligenes hominis CCUG 53761A^T as the outgroup. Scale bar indicates substitutions per nucleotide position.