title: The zoonotic potential of Lactococcus garvieae: An overview on microbiology, epidemiology, virulence factors and relationship with its presence in foods.
abstract: Lactococcus garvieae is a relevant worldwide fish pathogen affecting various farmed and wild marine and freshwater species. It has also been isolated from other animals, such as ruminants with subclinical mastitis and pigs with pneumonia. From the early 90s, L. garvieae has been associated with different human infections, mainly endocarditis. During the last five years, human infections by this bacterium appear to be increasing, likely due to the improvement in microbiological methods for bacterial identification and the alertness of this bacterium by physicians. Human L. garvieae infections have been associated with the consumption or the handling of contaminated raw fish or seafood, and recently, a genetic study showed that meat, raw milk and dairy products may also be food sources of human L. garvieae infections. However, the status of L. garvieae as a potential zoonotic bacterium is still controversial to date. In this work, we describe four new human infections by L. garvieae in elderly and inmunocompromised patients, and we show an overview on L. garvieae microbiology, epidemiology, virulence factors and relationship with its presence in foods.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: gibelloa@vet.ucm.es.
authors.forename: Alicia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gibello
authors.affiliation: Microbiology Service, Hospital Puerta del Mar, Cádiz, Spain.
authors.forename: Fátima
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Galán-Sánchez
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: M Mar
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Blanco
authors.affiliation: Microbiology Service, Hospital Puerta del Mar, Cádiz, Spain.
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Iglesias
authors.affiliation: Animal Health Surveillance Center (VISAVET), Complutense University, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Lucas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Domínguez
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, Complutense University, Madrid, Spain; Animal Health Surveillance Center (VISAVET), Complutense University, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: José F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Fernández-Garayzábal
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005516:Food Microbiology; D016908:Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D017045:Lactococcus / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D013552:Swine; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D015047:Zoonoses
chemical_list: D037521:Virulence Factors
keywords: Emerging zoonotic pathogen; Lactococcosis; Lactococcus garvieae infections