To the Editor: Diphtheria and diphtheria-like illness are caused by Corynebacterium spp. that harbor the diphtheria toxin–encoding tox gene. Recently in many industrialized countries, cases of diphtheria-like infection caused by toxigenic C. ulcerans have outnumbered those caused by toxigenic C. diphtheriae (1,2). C. ulcerans infection was originally associatedwith consumption of raw milk and dairy products or contact with cattle, but C. ulcerans has increasingly been isolated from domestic animals such as pet dogs and cats (3–5). So far, isolation of an identical toxigenic C. ulcerans strain from an animal and its owner has been documented only for dogs (3,4) and a pig (6). We report the isolation of an identical toxigenic C. ulcerans strain from an asymptomtic pet cat and a person with pharyngeal diphtheria-like illness; therefore, it might be speculated that the woman has acquired her infection from the cat.
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