Burkholderia pseudomallei (formerly Pseudomonas pseudomallei) is a facultative intracellular Gram-negative rod-shaped bacterium also known as Whitmore’s bacillus. The organism is responsible for infections in sheep, goats, pigs, cattle, horses, rats, cats and dogs. Soil and stagnant water (rice fields) form its natural reservoir. Humans are infected by contaminated soil via skin abrasions. Swallowing and inhalation of the bacilli can also result in clinical infection. Neonates can be infected on rare occasions (via placental micro-abscesses?). The disease is endemic in Southeast Asia and northern Australia. Very rarely cases are diagnosed in Central and South America, and also in Africa. In 1950 there was an epidemic in Aruba – an island off the coast of Venezuela. In 1970 an outbreak in France was linked to the zoo in the Jardin des Plantes near the Musée National d’Histoire Naturelle. It was assumed that the epidemic was caused either by an infected giant panda imported from China or an infected horse introduced from Iran.