ABSTRACT

The family Pasteurellaceae was conceived to accommodate a large group of Gram-negative chemoorganotrophic, facultatively anaerobic, and fermentative bacteria consisting of the genera Pasteurella, Actinobacillus, Haemophilus, and several other groups of parasites or pathogens that exhibit complex phenotypic and genomic relationships to the aforementioned genera. Infections in humans caused by members of the family Pasteurellaceae are of several disease types, including respiratory tract disease, infections of the central nervous system, septicemia, abdominal infections, urogenital infections, soft tissue infections, and infections of bone and joints. Pasteurella multocida infection complicating human chronic respiratory tract disease is probably one of the most common forms of human Pasteurella infection. Penicillin is the preferred drug when P. multocida infections must be treated with an antibiotic.