Dysgonomonas capnocytophagoides bacteraemia in a neutropenic patient treated for acute myeloid leukaemia

Dysgonomonas capnocytophagoides, formerly known as CDC group DF-3, is an opportunistic pathogen associated with diarrhoea and very rarely bacteraemia. We report a case of D. capnocytophagoides found in blood cultures from a severely neutropenic patient treated for acute myeloid leukaemia. The isolate was found resistant to penicillin, cephalosporins, meropenem, aminoglycosides and ciprofloxacin, and susceptible to ampicillin, tetracycline, chloramphenicol, clindamycin and trimethoprim-sulphamethoxazole. It was identified using conventional phenotypic testing but remained unidentified by the automated identification system (Vitek-2) as this system did not contain DF-3 or D. capnocytophagoides in its database.