Overview of glucose nonfermenters

History

• 425 BC: Described by Hippocrates
• Significant disease of horses - significantly impaired various cavalries in military action
• Etymology: Glandres - old French for ‘Glands’
• B.mallei is listed by the CDC as a Cat B bioterrorism agent.
  • Last diagnosed in UK: 1928
  • Last diagnoses in US:
    • 2000 (Lab exposure event)
    • 1945: Lab exposure event as part of bioweapons research
    • 1934: Last natural infection
• Biowarfare application
  • In WW1:
    • Germans deliberately infected Russian horses on the Ostfront, as well as French cavalry.
    • “At that time, Anton Dilger lived in Germany, but in 1915 he was sent to the [US] carrying cultures of glanders...set up a laboratory in his home in…Maryland. He used [dockworkers] in Baltimore to infect horses with glanders while they were waiting to be shipped to Britain. Dilger was under suspicion as being a German agent, but was never arrested”
  • 1982 - 1984: USSR accused of weaponising B.mallei in Afghanistan.

Taxonomy

Pseudomallei complex spp:

• Thailandensis
• mallei (causes Glanders)
• pseudomallei (causes Melioidosis)

Epidemiology

NB: Formerly worldwide, but as horses became less important for transport the disease was eradicated.

• Africa
• Asia/Middle East
• Central & South America