I present the case of an 87-year-old comorbid frail woman admitted to our Hospital with heart failure. Blood cultures after a febrile episode resulted positive for P. canis<\/em>. Response to piperacillin\/tazobactam was satisfactory, although she ultimately died from heart failure. She denied being bitten by any dog, therefore we speculated that P. canis<\/em> spread through respiratory secretions of a dog known to the patient, causing pneumonia (documented at a CT scan) followed by sepsis. She was on chronic immunosuppressive therapy – a known predisposing factor to P. canis<\/em> infection. In addition, multimorbidity, frailty and immunosenescence contributed to making her more susceptible to sepsis.<\/p>\n The numerosity of household pets in modern societies may contribute to an increased incidence of zoonotic infections. To our knowledge, this is one of the few reports of P. Canis <\/em>invasive infection worldwide and the first described in Italy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5259,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"schedule":[7],"speaker-category":[6],"class_list":["post-5256","speaker","type-speaker","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","schedule-day-2","speaker-category-speakers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nPasteurella<\/em> species are gram-negative coccobacilli belonging to the normal upper respiratory flora of many domestic animals. Human infections are mainly associated with animal bites. Pasteurella<\/em> invasive infections carry a high short-term mortality. Among this genus, P. multocida<\/em> accounts for most local and invasive human infections. Other species, including P. canis, P. dagmatis, and P. stomatis<\/em>, are less commonly implicated. P. canis<\/em> is mainly associated with localized wound infections following dog bites. Despite some emerging reports of recent sporadic P. canis <\/em>invasive infections, current evidence is limited just as epidemiology and clinical spectrum. Careful exposure history and prompt microbiological identification can guide early targeted therapy.<\/p>\n