RE: ‘Streptococcus pluranimalium: A novel human pathogen?’

Streptococcus pluranimalium as a novel human pathogen has been reported by several authors in various contexts. In all reported cases in humans the microorganism was detected by the Vitek2(®). The great advances with the introduction of new analytical techniques such as MALDI-TOF or 16S rRNA analysis enabled a more detailed discrimination of pathogens such as these nonhemolytic streptococci. In the cases of such similar gene sequences such techniques are absolutely essential to identify the exact strain for this highly conserved 16S rRNA gene. However, until now neither a sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA gene nor PCR nor MALDI-TOF techniques could define Streptococcus pluranimalium in humans. We conclude that according to our best present knowledge there exists no conclusive evidence for a human infection of Streptococcus pluranimalium even when using most advanced and exact identification techniques until now.