Pathogenic investigations of Streptococcus pasteurianus , an underreported zoonotic pathogen, isolated from a diseased piglet with meningitis

Streptococcus pasteurianus, an underreported opportunistic pathogen, is considered an increasingly recognized cause of meningitis and bacteremia in many animals and humans worldwide. However, except for some epidemiological studies, there is no report about the gene-deletion mutagenesis, virulence factors, reservoir niches or animal infection models for this pathogen. In this study, we first isolated an S. pasteurianus strain from a newly weaned piglet's brain with meningitis. The genomic sequence of this swine isolate WUSP067 shared high homology with that of two human strains. The comparative genome analysis showed that strain WUSP067 contained a fucose utilization cluster absent in human strains, and it shared 91% identity with that of an integrative and conjugative element (ICE) ICE