Abstract
Tularemia is a zoonotic disease caused by the gram negative coccobacillus Francisella tularensis, a Biosafety Level 3 pathogen and potential bioterrorism agent. We report here the first European human case of tularemia caused by F. tularensis subsp. tularensis in a patient returning from Canada to Switzerland. Successful culture and genomic characterisation revealed that the isolate belongs to the A.I lineage of F. tularensis subsp. tularensis, and clusters with strains from Canada and Alaska. This work underscores the importance of rapid diagnostics combined with genomic analysis and molecular characterization for detecting non-endemic pathogens and evaluating potential bioterrorism threats.