Gram Positive Rods

• Bacillus
• Corynebacterium
• Erysipelothrix
• Listeria
• Gardnererlla

• Endospores
• Enterotoxins

B. anthracis

• Cutaneous
• Gastroenteritis
• Inhalation (100% fatality)

• Gastroenteritis (mediated by enterotoxins)
• Ocular (rapid, progressive destruction following trauma)

• Mild, self-limiting disease.
• N/V or diarrhea.
• Often ignored as food bug

Corynebacterium diphtheriae

Non-pathogen species that often find their way into lab media

Small, thin rods that form long filaments

Small, paired coccobacilli

E. rhusiopathiae

Endocardtitis

Listeria monocytogenes

• Contaminated food (unpasteurized milk)
• Vertical
• zoonotic.

• Actinomyces
• Clostridium
• Lactobacillus
• Mobiluncus
• Propionibacterium

Actinomyces (resembles hyphae)

A. israelii

• Bacillus
• Clostridium

• 5 serotypes
• type A most responsible for human disease

• Arsenal of toxins known as lethal toxins.
• A-toxin (lecithinase)

• Hemolysin
• neurotoxin (tetanospasmin) responsible for clinical expression of tetanus by blocking neurotransmitter release

• Food borne (foods with low acid content)
• infant botulism (used to be caused by giving kids honey)
• Wound botulism

• Enterotoxin
• Cytotoxin

• Transient bacteremia
• Endocarditis
• opportunistic septicemia

On gram stain appear Gram - or gram variable, but have a gram positive cell wall, show antibiotic susceptibility similar to Gram + bacteria, lack endotoxin.

Colonize female genital tract in large numbers

P. acnes.