B. pseudomallei in Bore Water, Northern Australia | CDC EID

B. pseudomallei in Bore Water, Northern Australia | CDC EID: "EID Journal Home > Volume 17, Number 7–July 2011

Volume 17, Number 7–July 2011
Dispatch
Burkholderia pseudomallei in Unchlorinated Domestic Bore Water, Tropical Northern Australia

Mark Mayo, Mirjam Kaestli, Glenda Harrington, Allen C. Cheng, Linda Ward, Danuta Karp, Peter Jolly, Daniel Godoy, Brian G. Spratt, and Bart J. Currie Comments to Author
Author affiliations: Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia (M. Mayo, M. Kaestli, G. Harrington, A.C. Cheng, L. Ward, B.J. Currie); Royal Darwin Hospital, Darwin (L. Ward, B.J. Currie); Northern Territory Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts, Darwin (D. Karp, P. Jolly); and Imperial College, London, UK (D. Godoy, B.G. Spratt)

Suggested citation for this article

Abstract
To determine whether unchlorinated bore water in northern Australia contained Burkholderia pseudomallei organisms, we sampled 55 bores; 18 (33%) were culture positive. Multilocus sequence typing identified 15 sequence types. The B. pseudomallei sequence type from 1 water sample matched a clinical isolate from a resident with melioidosis on the same property.

Burkholderia pseudomallei is an environmental bacterium that causes melioidosis (1), a disease that is endemic throughout much of southeastern Asia and tropical northern Australia and sporadically occurs in other regions (2). Most infection is thought to result from percutaneous inoculation, but inhalation, aspiration, and ingestion of soil or water containing B. pseudomallei bacteria are the most recognized routes of infection. Outbreaks of melioidosis in Australia after exposure to contaminated water have been described. An outbreak of 159 cases in intensive piggeries (hog lots, a type of factory farm that specializes in raising pigs up to slaughter weight) in Queensland was attributed to contamination of the water supply (3), and a clonal outbreak in pigs on a small farm outside Darwin, Northern Territory was linked to B. pseudomallei cultured from the farm's bore water (4). Two clonal clusters of human melioidosis have also been found in remote indigenous communities in northern Australia where molecular typing of recovered bacteria traced the source of infection to a contaminated community water supply. Fatalities occurred in both outbreaks. In 1 outbreak, the water supply was not chlorinated (5); in the other, the chlorination system was not adequately maintained (6).

Bore water can be contaminated with B. pseudomallei in our region (4,7). We surveyed a series of bores to ascertain how commonly such contamination occurs and whether B. pseudomallei is transient or persistent in positive bores. We then compared the genetic diversity of B. pseudomallei strains recovered from bores with strains from human melioidosis cases and other environmental strains from the region.

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Suggested Citation for this Article

Mayo M, Kaestli M, Harrington G, Cheng AC, Ward L, Karp D, et al. Burkholderia pseudomallei in unchlorinated domestic bore water, tropical northern Australia. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2011 Jul [date cited]. http://wwww.cdc.gov/EID/content/17/7/1283.htm

DOI: 10.3201/eid1707.100614

Comments to the Authors

Please use the form below to submit correspondence to the authors or contact them at the following address:

Bart J. Currie, Menzies School of Health Research, PO Box 41096, Casuarina NT 0811, Australia; email: bart@menzies.edu.au