Bacteremic Infection with Pantoea ananatis

A 73-year-old man was hospitalized for dyspnea and bilateral ankle edema. During his hospital stay he presented anal hemorrhage and developed a high fever after colonoscopy. A set of aerobic and anaerobic blood culture bottles yielded a pure culture of gram-negative rods, susceptible to all antibiotics tested. The API20E code was 1005133, resulting in a very good identification as Pantoea sp. Subsequent sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene revealed a final identification as Pantoea ananatis. The patient was given intravenous and oral therapy with piperacillin-tazobactam and ofloxacin and recovered completely from his infection.