VetBact
VetBact logo

VetBact

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Veterinary bacteriology: information about important bacteria
Veterinary bacteriology


Species/Subspecies: Paenibacillus larvae
Categories: Causes hemolysis; spore forming; motile
Etymology: Genus name: Almost a Bacillus sp.
Species epithet: from larvae.
Significance:American foulbrood is common in the United States, but also occurs in Sweden, Finland and other European countries. The disease can cause significant economic losses where it is prevalent.
  [Important]   
Alternative Species Name(s):Paenibacillus larvae subsp. larvae och P. larvae subsp. pulvifaciens har nu sammanförts till en art.
Taxonomy:
Phylum
Bacillota
Class
Bacilli
Order
Bacillales
Family
Paenibacillaceae 
Genus
Paenibacillus
Type Strain: ATCC 9545 = CCUG 28515.
Macromorphology (smell): Produces mostly greyish-white colonies with diffuse edges. However, there are strains, which form orange pigmented colonies. Some of these (genotype ERIC 3) gives a clear hemolysis zone on blood agar.
Micromorphology:
 
Spore forming and motile rods (0.5-0.8 x 2.5-5.0 µm), which have peritrichous flagella.
Gram +/Gram -:G+, but difficult to gram stain.
Metabolism: Facultatively anaerobic
Catalase/Oxidase:(-)/?
Other Enzymes: Esculinase +, tryptophanase +, urease -
Biochemical Tests: Citrate -, has mixed acid fermentation (Voges-Proskauer +)
Fermentation of carbohydrates:
D-glucose
+
lactose
?
maltose
?
L-rhamnose
?
sucrose
?
L-arabinose
-
cellobiose
+
D-mannitol
-
salicin
+
trehalose
?
glycerol
+
inulin
?
raffinose
+
D-sorbitol
-
starch
?
Other carbohydrates: Adonitol -, galactose +.
Spec. Char.:
Disease:American foulbrood of honeybees.
Hosts: Honeybee (Apis mellifera)
Clinical Picture: Abnormally high number of dead larvae (even in closed cells). Dead larvae produce a brown viscous residue in the cell, which can be pulled out with a match to a long thread. These residues contain large amounts of bacterial spores and can have a foal smell.
Genome Sequence:
Acc-noStrainSize (bp)Genome
CP003355 04-310 (= DSM 25430) 4 046 337 1c + 1c 
At least three strains have been sequenced and these strains have 0 to 1 circular plasmids.

16S rRNA Seq.:
Acc-noStrainNumber of NTOperon
X60619 ATCC 9545T 1425 

Taxonomy/phylogeny:
 
About 75 species and subspecies have been described within the genus Paenibacillus. Many of them were earlier regarded as members of the genus Bacillus.
Legislation: On suspicion of American foulbrood (AFB) in Sweden, a complaint is required to the bee inspector or the provincial government by Swedish law. AFB is included in OIE's A-list of major animal diseases.
Comment:Compare Melisococcus plutonius, which causes European foulbrood.
Reference(s): No. 97, 128, 137
Link: Amerikansk yngelröta - biologi, diagnos och bekämpning
Updated:2023-03-08

News

The taxonomy of chlamydias

Species within the family Chlamydiaceae were previously divided into two genera Chlamydia and Chlamydophila. However, the differences between these two genera were not that great and many research groups have not accepted this division. Therefore, the genus Chlamydophila has been returned to the genus Chlamydia and this change has now been incorporated in VetBact

Published 2023-03-15. Read more...
New names of bacterial phyla

The taxonomic category phylum was previously not regulated by the International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP), but now this has changed and it was decided to revise the names of bacterial phyla. All phyla must be written in italics (which has been done on VetBact also before) and have the ending -ota.

Published 2023-03-01. Read more...

Recently Updated

Recent blog posts

Most recent comment


Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences