| Species/Subspecies: | Eperythrozoon felis | ||||||||
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| Etymology: | Genus name: "animals" on red blood cells. Species epithet: from the blood of the cat. | ||||||||
| Significance: | [Very important] | ||||||||
| Alternative Species Name(s): | Haemobartonella felis (rickettsia), Mycoplasma haemofelis | ||||||||
| Taxonomy: | Class Mollicutes Order Mycoplasmoidales Family Mycoplasmoidaceae Genus Eperythrozoon |
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| Type Strain: | Not defined | ||||||||
| Macromorphology (smell): | Cannot be cultivated on artificial media. | ||||||||
| Micromorphology: | Very small and pleomorphic | ||||||||
| Gram +/Gram -: | G-, but is normally not gram stained because the cells will then be fragmented. | ||||||||
| Catalase/Oxidase: | |||||||||
| Spec. Char.: | Lacks the cell wall (as other mollicutes) and colonize the surface of erythrocytes. | ||||||||
| Special Media: | |||||||||
| Vector: | Fleas are supposed to be vectors. | ||||||||
| Disease: | Feline haemotropic mycoplasmosis or hemolytic anemia in cats. |
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| Hosts: | Cat | ||||||||
| Clinical Picture: | The clinical picture varies from mild (fatigue, eat less) to serious illness and death. Anemia | ||||||||
| Genome Sequence: |
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| 16S rRNA Seq.: |
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| Taxonomy/phylogeny:
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About 10 species of mollicutes have been described within the genus Eperythrozoon. Members of this genus was earlier referred to as hemotropic mycoplasmas because they colonize the surface of red blood cells. Now they should be called hemotropic mollicutes because they are not affiliated to the orderMycoplasmatales any longer, but the order Mycoplasmoidales. They are related to mollicutes within the genera Malacoplasmas, Mycoplasmoides and Ureaplasma. It was believed for a long time that the hemotropic mollicutes were rickettsias, but by phylogenetic methods among others, it has been proved that they really are mollicutes.
Note that in the phylogenetic tree (Fig. 42:1) E. felis and E. suis are still called M. haemofelis and M. suis, respectively. Also note that the letter M in the tree can mean Mycoplasma, Mesomycoplasma, Metamycoplasma, Mycoplasmoides or Mycoplasmopsis. |
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| Comment: | Based on whole genome sequencing, the taxonomy of mycoplasmas has recently undergone a comprehensive revision. The new taxonomy is about to be introduced in VetBact, but it will still be possible to search for the alternative species names. Read more about the revised taxonomy of the mollicutes under the Term list of VetBact and see reference 164 below. | ||||||||
| Reference(s): | No. 164 | ||||||||
| Updated: | 2023-03-15 |