A rare bloodstream infection: Bacillus mycoides

A 65-year-old male was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit after being resuscitated because of a hypoxic cardiac arrest caused by influenza. Blood cultures taken at time of admission surprisingly grew Bacillus mycoides, a spore-producing apathogenic agriculture bacterium. We collected culture samples at his barge. Although we did not culture Bacillus mycoides, we did find multiple other Bacillus species. We hypothesised that our patient was colonised from the freights of his barge, and bloodstream infection occurred during resuscitation with either the bacterium itself or its spores. To our knowledge, this is the first report on bloodstream infection with Bacillus mycoides in a human patient.