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Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Veterinary bacteriology: information about important bacteria
Veterinary bacteriology


Species/Subspecies: Salmonella spp.
Category: Motile
Etymology: Genus name: named after the American bacteriologist D. E. Salmon.
Species epithet: spp. (species in pl.) is used to designate many different species (within the genus Salmonella in this case).
Significance:  [Very important]   
Taxonomy:
Phylum
Pseudomonadota
Class
Gammaproteobacteria
Order
Enterobacterales
Family
Enterobacteriaceae 
Genus
Salmonella
Type Strain: See individual subspecies.
Macromorphology (smell): Medium sized colonies (2-4 mm in diameter).
Micromorphology: Straight rods (0.7-1.5 x 2.0-5.0 µm). Most strains är motile with peritrochous flagella.
Gram +/Gram -:G-
Metabolism: Facultatively anaerobic
Catalase/Oxidase:+/-
Other Enzymes: Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) +, ornithine decarboxylase +, tryptophanase (indole) -, urease -.
Biochemical Tests: Citrate +, methyl red +, Voges-Proskauer -.
Spec. Char.: See individual subspecies.
Disease:See individual subspecies.
Hosts: See individual subspecies.
Clinical Picture: See individual subspecies.
16S rRNA Seq.:  -
Taxonomy/phylogeny: There are two taxonomic systems for genus Salmonella. According to the old system, genus Salmonella was divided into seven species, but with modern taxonomic methods, it has been found that five of these should be combined into one species (Salmonella enterica) and according to the new system, genus Salmonella consists of the following three species: Salmonella bongori, Salmonella enterica and (Salmonella subterranea). The later is written within parentheses, because some researchers claim that Salmonella subterranea should not belong to genus Salmonella, but rather to genus Escherichia.

In the new system, the five "old species" have been transferred to different serovars and should be named e.g. Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica, serovar Enteritidis and so on. If you have used the correct nomenclature (as above) in a scientific text, it is sufficient to write Salmonella Enteritidis, the next time it appears. Observe that the serovar designations should always be written with capital first letter and should not be italicized.

Of the salmonella species, it is only Salmonella enterica that is included in VetBact and for further division into subspecies and serovars, see Salmonella enterica.

The old taxonomic system has mainly been abandoned and we strongly recommend the new system to be used.
Link: Salmonella nomenclature
Updated:2023-03-29

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