Local infection with Pasteurella septica after a dog bite.

Pasteurella septica is a common pathogen of animals and birds, generally causing a haemorrhagic septicaemia, and it has been described as an upper respiratory tract commensal organism in cats, rats, and dogs. Human infection has been reported on several occasions following the bites of cats, the first recorded case being that of Kapel and Holm (1930), and occasionally from the bites of other animals, but only four cases following dog bites have been recorded (Allott, Cruickshank, Cyrlas-Williams, Glass, Meyer, Straker, and Tee, 1944; Brunsdon and Mallett, 1953). This is remarkable in view of the fact that the organism can be isolated from the tonsils of 50% of healthy dogs (Smith, 1955). A further case of local infection after a dog bite is reported here.