Presence and persistence of viable, clinically relevant Legionella pneumophila bacteria in garden soil in the Netherlands

Garden soils were investigated as reservoirs and potential sources of pathogenic Legionella bacteria. Legionella bacteria were detected in 22 of 177 garden soil samples (12%) by amoebal coculture. Of these 22 Legionella-positive soil samples, seven contained L. pneumophila Several other species were found including the pathogenic L. Longbeachae (4 gardens) and L. sainthelensi (9 gardens). The L. pneumophila isolates comprised 15 different sequence types (STs) and eight of these STs were previously isolated from patients, according to the EWGLI database. Six gardens that were found positive for L. pneumophila were resampled after several months and in three gardens, L. pneumophila was again isolated. One of these gardens was re-sampled four times throughout the year and found positive for L. pneumophila on all occasions.

IMPORTANCE: Tracking the source of infection for sporadic cases of Legionnaires' disease (LD) has proven to be hard. L. pneumophila ST47, the sequence type that is most frequently isolated from LD patients in the Netherlands, is rarely found in potential environmental sources. As L. pneumophila ST47 was previously isolated from a garden soil sample during an outbreak investigation, garden soils were investigated as reservoirs and potential sources of pathogenic Legionella bacteria. The detection of viable, clinically relevant Legionella strains indicates that garden soil is a potential source of Legionella bacteria and future research should assess the public health implication of the presence of L. pneumophila in garden soil.