PASTEURELLA multocida is a small, nonmotile, gram-negative, ovoid rod showing bipolar staining. Although it has been isolated from the respiratory and intestinal tracts of apparently normal cats, dogs, sheep, horses, fowl, swine, cattle and rats, it has long been known as the causative organism of hemorrhagic septicemia in animals.1 Human infections, though rarely reported, are probably far commoner than the literature leads one to believe.2 These infections may be of two types: a localized form resulting from an animal bite, usually that of a cat, with local abscess formation, sometimes resulting in osteomyelitis of the underlying bone; and a systemic . . .