An outbreak of nosocomial urinary-tract infection was caused by a strain of Proteus rettgeri that fermented lactose overnight and was resistant to all antimicrobial drugs tested. The nonmotile isolates shared an O (somatic) antigen that differed from those of wild-type P. rettgeri. The organisms proved markedly serum-sensitive. In rats, the isolates elicited an acute interstitial nephritis with associated transient bacteriuria. Attempts to transfer the lac(+) trait and drug-resistance markers to recipient strains of Escherichia coli K-12 failed; exposure of the isolates to acridine orange yielded small numbers of non-lactose-fermenting variants which, however, were still as drug-resistant as before. Epidemiological studies failed to uncover the source of this unique strain and appeared to indicate exogenous spread of infection.
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Traub et al. (1971) studied this question.