VetBact

Phylum	Class	Order	Family	Genus	Species/Subspecies

Species/Subspecies:

Brucella melitensis

Categories:

Zoonotic; notifiable diseases and bacteria

Etymology:

Genus name: named after Sir David Bruce, who first identified the organism, which causes brucellosis.
Species epithet: Refers to the island of Malta (Melita), where the organism was first found.

Significance:

[Very important]

Taxonomy:

Phylum
Pseudomonadota

Class
Alphaproteobacteria

Order
Hyphomicrobiales

Family
Brucellaceae

Genus
Brucella

Type Strain:

16M = ATCC 23456 = NCTC 100

Macromorphology (smell):

Pale honey coloured transparant colonies, which do not give hemolysis on blood agar.

Micromorphology:

Non-motile cocci or short rods

G-

Aerobic

+/+

Urease +

Fermentation of carbohydrates:

Most Brucella spp. do not produce acid by fermentation of carbohydrates.

Spec. Char.:

Special Media:

Disease:

Brucellosis. Malta fever. The disease is a zoonosis.

Hosts	Disease	Clinical picture
Sheep and goats	Brucelloisis	Abortion (mostly last trimester), stillbirth, reduce milk yield, retained placenta, purulent vaginal discharge. In males orchitis, epididymitis and infertility
Cattle	Brucelloisis	Abortion, reproductive losses, orchitis, epididymitis, arthritis and hygromas
Humans	Brucelloisis, Malta fever	Diverse symptoms from asymptomatic to flu-like signs, fever, chills, headache, malaise, back pain, myalgia and lymphadenopathy. Negligible human mortality Most common species of brucellosis in humans

Genome Sequence:

Acc-no	Strain	Size (bp)	Genome
NC_003317 and NC_003318	16M	3 294 931	(2c + 0)

Chrom. I (2 117 144 bp) and chrom. II (1 177 787 bp), respectively.
Totally two strains have been sequenced, but plasmids have not been reported.

16S rRNA Seq.:

Acc-no	Strain	Number of NT	Operon
L26166	(T)	1405	3

Two rRNA genes in chrom. I and one in chrom. II.

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 melitensis 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

VetBact

Recently Updated

Recent blog posts