VetBact
VetBact logo

VetBact

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Veterinary bacteriology: information about important bacteria
Veterinary bacteriology


Species/Subspecies: Brucella suis
Categories: Zoonotic; notifiable diseases and bacteria
Etymology: Genus name: named after Sir David Bruce, who first identified the organism, which causes brucellosis.
Species epithet: of pig.
Significance:  [Very important]   
Alternative Species Name(s):Brucella melitensis biovar Suis
Taxonomy:
Phylum
Pseudomonadota
Class
Alphaproteobacteria
Order
Hyphomicrobiales
Family
Brucellaceae 
Genus
Brucella
Type Strain: 1330 = ATCC 23444 = NCTC 10316.
Macromorphology (smell): Pale honey coloured transparant colonies, which do not give hemolysis on blood agar.
Micromorphology: Non-motile cocci or short rods
Gram +/Gram -:G-
Metabolism: Aerobic
Catalase/Oxidase:+/+
Other Enzymes: Urease +
Fermentation of carbohydrates: Most Brucella spp. do not produce acid by fermentation of carbohydrates.
Spec. Char.:
Disease:
HostsDiseaseClinical picture
PigsBrucellosisAbortion, stillbirths, infertility, orchitis, arthritis, spondylitis
HumansBrucellosisIntermittent fever, systemic disease
Genome Sequence:
Acc-noStrainSize (bp)Genome
NC_004310 and NC_004311 1330 3 315 175 (2c + ?) 
Chrom. I (2 107 794 bp) and chrom. II (1 207 381 bp), respectively.

16S rRNA Seq.:
Acc-noStrainNumber of NTOperon
L26169 (T) 1 412 
Two rRNA genes in chrom. I and one in chrom. II, respectively.

Taxonomy/phylogeny:
 
About 25 species have been described within genus Brucella and this genus is closely related to genus Bartonella. From a phylogenetic point of view, B. abortus, B. canis, B. ceti, B. melitensis, B. neotome, B. ovis, B. pinnipedialis and B. suis represent the same species (B. melitensis), but due to different host specificities, they have been affiliated with different species.
Legislation: Brucella suis belongs to category B as a potential bioterrorism agent according to NIAID.
Comment:May penetrate intact skinn. In Sweden brucellosis is notifiable to the Swedish Board of Agriculture and is governed by the epizootic diseases law.
Link: Epiwebb - om epizootisjukdomar [in Swedish]
Updated:2023-03-22

News

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...
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...

Recently Updated

Recent blog posts

Most recent comment


Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences