A bacterium previously known as a cause of tree disease has been identified in a human for the first time. Researchers in Hamburg have reported the detection of Gibbsiella quercinecans in a man with an infected soft tissue injury on his thumb. Researchers first described Gibbsiella quercinecans in detail in 2010 in connection with acute oak decline in the United Kingdom and Spain.

The aforementioned incident in Germany, described in the journal New Microbes and New Infections, is the first time a bacterium from the Gibbsiella genus has been linked to a human infection. This situation raises the question of how often environmental organisms go unrecognised or undetected in routine diagnostics.

The patient, a 60-year-old man with no significant medical history, fell from his bicycle in Northern Germany alongside roadside oak trees (Quercus robur), sustaining injuries to his scalp and left thumb.

https://bioengineer.org/oak-tree-bacterium-identified-in-human-infection-for-the-first-time/