Varied Clinical Spectrum of a Rare Entity Pneumonia-Pasteurella canis: Case Series and Review of the Literature

Abstract

Pasteurella canis is a gram-negative coccobacillus belonging to the Pasteurellaceae family. Pasteurella species are prevalent among many animals where they are present as part of normal microbial flora of oral, nasopharyngeal and upper respiratory tract mucosa. Over 28 genera have been recognised in genus Pasteurella. They cause endemic and epizootic infections in animals. Zoonotic pneumonias are rarely encountered and diagnosed in routine clinical practice and often there is a lack of insight on zoonotic pneumonia amongst pulmonologists and microbiologists. We report five cases of pneumonia caused by P. canis. The novelty of our case series is the fact that P. canis is sparsely reported in the medical literature as a cause of pneumonia. Also, in most of our patients no definite source of contact with pets could be traced and all had an underlying structural lung disease or systemic immunocompromised conditions.

Keywords

• bronchial lavage
• immunocompromised states
• vitek-2
• zoonotic pneumonia