Rhodococcus equi is a major cause of pneumonia in domestic animals, especially foals, and an opportunistic pathogen of immunocompromised humans (1). Control of R. equi infections in horses has relied on early detection of subclinical pulmonary disease and treatment with antimicrobial drugs before development of clinical signs (2). However, the onset of clinical signs of R. equi pneumonia in foa...

Rhodococcus equi is a facultative intracellular bacterium causing severe pyogranulomatous pneumonia, ulcerative enterocolitis, and mesenteric lymphadenopathy in foals aged less than 6 months. Less frequently, this pathogen affects various other species, such as pigs, cattle, cats, and even humans. Although rhodococcosis is treated with a combination of antimicrobial agents, resistance is develo...

BACKGROUND Rhodococcus equi is an important pathogen of foals. Enteral administration of live, virulent R. equi during early life has been documented to protect against subsequent intrabronchial challenge with R. equi, indicating that enteral mucosal immunization may be protective. Evidence exists that mucosal immune responses develop against both live and inactivated micro-organisms. The exten...

Rhodococcus equi per se and R. equi containing a virulence-associated plasmid can be cultured with similar frequency from the soil of farms with and without a history of R. equi disease. This finding, in conjunction with variability in results between testing procedures and laboratories, indicates that identification of R. equi by culture from farm soils does not accurately predict the probabil...

Rhodococcus equi is an important pathogen of foals, causing severe pyogranulomatous pneumonia. Virulent R. equi strains grow within macrophages, a process which remains poorly characterized. A potential source of carbon for intramacrophage R. equi is membrane lipid-derived fatty acids, which following beta oxidation are assimilated via the glyoxylate bypass. To assess the importance of isocitra...

AIM The aim was to determine the occurrence of Rhodococcus equi in equines and their environment in Jammu (R.S. Pura, Katra), molecular characterization and to determine the antibiotic resistance pattern of R. equi. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 96 nasopharyngeal swab samples were collected from equines. The organism was isolated on Columbia nalidixic acid agar containing 5% sheep blood as...

A novel method to efficiently generate unmarked in-frame gene deletions in Rhodococcus equi was developed, exploiting the cytotoxic effect of 5-fluorocytosine (5-FC) by the action of cytosine deaminase (CD) and uracil phosphoribosyltransferase (UPRT) enzymes. The opportunistic, intracellular pathogen R. equi is resistant to high concentrations of 5-FC. Introduction of Escherichia coli genes enc...

Rhodococcus equi (R. equi) is an intracellular macrophage-tropic pathogen with potential for causing fatal pyogranulomatous pneumonia in foals between 1 and 6 months of age. In this study, we sought to determine whether infection of macrophages with R. equi could lead to the induction of autophagy. Murine bone marrow derived macrophages (BMDM) were infected with R. equi for various time interva...

Rhodococcus equi is an emerging opportunistic pathogen in immunocompromised patients. A lungtransplant recipient developed weight loss, nonproductive cough, dyspnea, and somnolence. Computed tomogram showed a pulmonary nodule and pleural changes in the right allograft that was due to R. equi infection. Alteration of cell-mediated immunity is a predisposing risk factor for R. equi infection in h...

Rhodococcus equi infection is commonly encountered in HIV-infected patients; recipients of organ transplants; and in those with lymphoma, chronic renal failure, alcoholism, lung cancer, leukaemia, diabetes mellitus, and other states of immunodeficiency. Recent reports have also documented R. equi infections among immunocompetent patients. The most common manifestations of R. equi infections are...