CORYNEBACTERIUM MASTITIDIS SP. NOV., ISOLATED FROM MILK OF SHEEP WITHSUBCLINICAL MASTITIS

Fourteen strains of a hitherto unknown catalase-positive, aerobic, gra m-positive coryneformlike organism were isolated from the milk of shee p with subclinical mastitis from different regions of Spain, The strai ns phenotypically closely resembled one another and biochemically were similar to Corynecbacterium urealyticum and Corynebacterium afermenta ns subsp. lipophilum. The results of chemotaxonomic investigations wer e consistent with membership in the genus Corynebacterium, and compara tive 16S rRNA gene sequencing studies showed that the unknown bacteriu m from sheep was indeed a member of the genus Corynebacterium. Within the genus Corynebacterium the new bacterium formed a distinct subline that exhibited >4% sequence divergence with other species, Based an bo th phenotypic and phylogenetic findings, a new species, Corynebacteriu m mastitidis, is proposed for the organisms from mastitic sheep. The t ype strain of C. mastitidis is CECT 4843 (= S-8).