The first description of the bacterium was in 1878-79
when Rivolta and Revolee reported an outbreak of
disease in fowl. About the same time, a disease in
cattle and buffaloes was described by Bollinger in
Germany. Its causative organism was isolated by Kitt in
1885. Gaffky described a septicaemic disease in rabbits
in 1881 and Loeffler described a similar disease in
swine in 1886. It was the German pathologist Hueppe
who, in 1886, observed similarities in all of these
diseases and also similarities in the bacteria associated
with these disease conditions. Later, in 1887, Oreste
and Armani described a similar disease called 'barbone'
in buffaloes in Italy, also caused by a similar organism;
they proposed the name Bacillus septicaemiae for this
bacterium. However, in 1887, Trevisan proposed the
name Pasteurella to commemorate the work of Louis
Pasteur on the aetiology of fowl cholera, which is
caused by the same organism. Human infections
caused by the same organism were described for the
first time in 1920.