CHARACTERIZATION OF AN ISOLATE BELONGING TO THE NEWLY DESCRIBED SPECIES MYCOBACTERIUM-HASSIACUM

The isolation, from a urine sample, of a rapidly growing acid-fast myc obacterium assigned to the thermophilic species Mycobacterium hassiacu m led to further insight into present knowledge of this newly describe d organism. Already known phenotypic traits of M. hassiacum were exten ded and its susceptibility to additional antimicrobials ams investigat ed. The high-performance liquid chromatography pattern of mycolic acid s is, for the first time, presented. So far, no clinical relevance was proved for our isolate; likewise for the one which led to the species ' original description. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.