Table 1.

Sporadic Cases of Campylobacter fetus Infections

Case	Sex/Age, y	Previous Health Status	Likely Exposure	Clinical Signs and Origin of Isolate	Microbiological Results	Reference
1	Male	No specific remarks on the health status, but no visit of physician was reported	Occupational; laboratory worker engaged in the study of C. fetus	Isolated from pustule on the cheek	Phenotypically most likely C. fetus	Ward, 1948 [20]
2	Male/39	Healthy	Occupational; livestock trucker	Cough, abdominal discomfort, fever. Isolated from blood	C. fetus	King, 1957 [13]
3	Male/31	Healthy	Occupational; butcher in abattoir	Cough, nausea, diarrhea, blurred vision, dizzy, fever, chills, headache, enlarged lymph nodes. Isolated from blood	C. fetus	King, 1957 [13]
4	Male/53	Impared fasting glucose but otherwise healthy	Occupational; farmer	6-day acute febrile illness. Isolated from blood and bone marrow aspirate	C. fetus subsp fetus	Zonios et al, 2005 [21]
5	Male/40	No health problems reported	Occupational; farmer	Meningitis, headache, fever. Isolated from cerebrospinal fluid	C. fetus subsp fetus	Gubina et al, 1976 [22]
6	Several members of Hutterite colony (average age 21.8)	No health problems reported	Working in abattoir was identified as risk factor; consumption of raw milk and cheese; unchlorinated water	Diarrhea (7 isolates from 15 stool samples)	C. fetus subsp fetus	Rennie et al, 1994 [23]
7	Male/54	No past medical problems	Occupational; slaughterhouse worker	Pleuritic chest pain, lethargy, fever. Isolated from blood	C. fetus subsp fetus	Ganeshram et al, 2000 [24]
8	Male/65	Heart problems, infected residual teeth	Occupational; farmer	Fever, chills, weight loss, enlarged spleen, diarrhea. Isolated from blood	C. fetus	King, 1957 [13]
9	Male/40	Brucellosis	Occupational; abattoir worker	Diarrhea, fever, chills, headache. Isolated from blood	C. fetus	King, 1957 [13]
10	Male/48	Previous alcohol overuse	Occupational; abattoir worker	Fever, endocarditis. Isolated from blood	C. fetus subsp fetus	Wong et al, 2003 [25]
11	Male/46	Chronic alcoholism, malnutrition	Occupational; farmer	Coughing, gastrointestinal problems, headaches. Isolated from blood	C. fetus subsp fetus	Gubina et al, 1976 [22]
12a	Male/62	Postnecrotic cirrhosis, possible liver transplantation	Exposure to diseased calves	Cellulitis, fever	C. fetus subsp fetus	Nadir et al, 1994 [26]
13	Male/75	Healthy	Frequent consumption of smoked sheep cheese from unpasteurized milk	Undulating fever, abscesses upper jaw. Isolated from blood	C. fetus subsp fetus and C. lari	Krause et al, 2002 [27]
14	2 male/1 and 7; 1 female/5	Healthy	Milk consumption	Diarrhea. Isolated from stool	C. fetus subsp fetus	Klein et al, 1986 [14]
15	Male/28	Healthy	Khat chewing	Fever, diarrhea, headache, photophobia. Isolated from blood	C. fetus subsp fetus	Martinez-Balzano et al, 2013 [28]
16	Male/37	Healthy	Unknown	Fever, low back pain, Pyogenic spondylodiscitis. Isolated from blood	C. fetus	Tanaka et al, 2012 [29]

Cases reported in previously healthy persons who were occupationally exposed (cases 1–7), persons with other illnesses who were occupationally exposed (cases 8–12), and previously healthy persons who were not occupationally exposed (cases 13–16). Cases in pregnant women are excluded. One additional healthy case has been reported in the literature [30], but this publication was followed by a discussion in the same journal and the apparently healthy status was questioned.

^aThis case was reported as a patient who showed no overt evidence of immune incompetence, but the clinical description suggested that this patient did not fit in the group of previously healthy individuals.