Anaerobes

• Organisms that grow in the absence of oxygen; they vary in their ability to tolerate oxygen
• Categorized according to their gram stain reaction
• Normal habitat: environment, animals, and humans (oral cavity, URT, GI tract, GU tract, and
skin)
• Diseases:
– Exogenous: organisms from outside the body
– Endogenous: organisms from inside the body
– Clues of ananerobic infections: infection near mucous surface, foul-smelling or gaseous
discharge, and necrotic tissue
– Most commonly: Bacteroides fragilis, Prevotella spp., Porphyromonas spp., Fusobacterium
nucleatum, Clostridium perfringens, and anaerobic cocci.
Specimens
•Special collection and transport
• Inappropriate specimens: those with indigenous microbiota should not be cultured for
anaerobes.
• Anaerobic media (prereduced)
• Anaerobic incubation

Clostridium perfringens
• Diseases:
– Myonecrosis (gas gangrene)
– Bacteremia
– Food poisoning
– Other
• Key characteristics:
– Gram-positive, boxcar shaped rods
– Double zone hemolysis
– Reverse CAMP +
– Spores rarely observed

Clostridium difficile
• Disease: antibiotic-associated diarrhea (pseudomembranous colitis)
• Key characteristics:
– Yellow, ground-glass colonies on CCFA,
– chartreuse fluorescence
– Odor: horse manure/stable
– Spores readily produced
– Toxin detection: cytotoxicity (toxin B); EIA (toxin A, B, or both)

Clostridium botulinum
• Disease: botulism
– Foodborne—toxin ingested
– Infant—spores ingested
– Wound—infected wound
• Other: preliminary diagnosis made clinically; reference lab confirm diagnosis by culturing
Clostridium tetani
• Disease: tetanus (lockjaw)
• Key characteristics: “drumstick” or “tennis racket” cells; swarming colonies
• Other:
– Diagnosis usually clinical; immunization prevents disease

Acinetobacter
• Related to Neisseria and Moraxella
• Opportunistic infections:
– UTIs, bacteremia, wound infections, and pneumonia
• Grows on routine lab media and loosk like Enterobacteriaceae
– Oxidase negative
– Nitrate reduction negative
– Catalase positive
– Motility negative