In all 4 cases, after the blood culture showed positive growth it
was inoculated in Blood and MacConkey's agar. After 24 h of
incubation greyish white wrinkled colonies with metallic
sheen were grown on blood agar (Fig. 1). On MacConkey agar,
initially non-lactose fermenting colonies were grown which
turned pink on prolonged incubation with typical metallic
sheen. Gram stain of the colonies showed gram negative bipolar staining bacilli with characteristic“Safety pin appearance”. The organism was oxidase positive, utilized glucose,
lactose and starch, dihydrolysed arginine, liquefied gelatin,
reduced nitrate to nitrite with gas production and grew well at