Rothia nasimurium as a Cause of Disease: First Isolation from Farmed Geese

Abstract

Rothia nasimurium was known previously as an opportunistic pathogen of animals. However, there are few reports regarding the pathogenicity of Rothia nasimurium. In September 2020, geese contracted a disease of unknown cause which brought economic losses to a farm in Jiangsu Province, China, prompting a series of investigations. The bacterium was isolated, cultured, and purified, and then identified using Gram staining, biochemical tests, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry, and 16S rRNA sequence analysis. After determining the obtained bacteria species, antibiotic susceptibility tests and animal regression experiments were carried out. A strain of bacterium was successfully isolated from the livers of the diseased geese, which was identified as a strain of the Gram-positive bacterium Rothia nasimurium according to the 16S rRNA sequencing results. By indexing references, no goose was reported to have been infected with Rothia nasimurium. The antibiotic susceptibility testing showed that only four antibiotics (amikacin, cefazolin, fosfomycin, and ampicillin/sulbactam) could effectively inhibit the growth of the Rothia nasimurium strain. The animal regression experiments showed that the novel isolated strain could infect goslings, and it also causes serious depilation of goslings. The results of the manuscript expanded the range of pathogenic microorganisms in geese, which is helpful to develop methods for avian endemic control.