ENTEROCOCCUS ASINI SP. NOV. ISOLATED FROM THE CECUM OF DONKEYS (EQUUS-ASINUS)

Several Cram-positive, non-spore-forming and non-motile bacteria consi sting of pairs or chains of cocci were isolated during an investigatio n of the bacterial flora of the caecum of donkeys. Physiological and m etabolic data indicated that the strains belong to the genus Enterococ cus; phenotypic traits of these organisms were not consistent with any of the currently known Enterococcus species. 16S rRNA gene sequence a nalysis placed these strains in the genus Enterococcus, Their closest relatives are Enterococcus avium, Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcu s pseudoavium with a sequence similarity of 97.4%. This group of strai ns can be differentiated from the other Enterococcus spp, by their phe notypic characteristics: strains do not grow in 6.5% NaCl; they do not produce acid from mannitol, sorbitol, sorbose, sucrose, raffinose, ri bose and tagatose; they produce acid from D-xylose; they are able to u tilize pyruvate; and they present a negative reaction on arginine, The name Enterococcus asini sp, nov. is proposed for these strains; the t ype strain is AS2(T)(= DSM 11492(T)).