FAMILY VII. SPIRILLACEAE 



245 



Broth: Slightly turbid; thin pellicle. 



Litmus milk: Soft coagulum. Peptonized, 

 alkaline. 



Potato : Brownish red streak. 



Indole produced. 



Hj^drogen sulfide produced. 



No action in sugar media. 



Nitrites not produced from nitrates. 



Pathogenic for frogs. 



Aerobic, facultative. 



Optimum temperature, between 18° and 

 20° C. 



Habitat: Causes epidemic infection in 

 fish. 



29. Vibrio hyphalus ZoBell and Up- 

 ham, 1944. (Bull. Scripps Inst, of Ocean- 

 ography, Univ. Calif., 5, 1944, 277.) 



hy.pha'lus. Gr. adj. hyphalus under the 

 sea, submarine. 



Curved rods, 0.6 by 1.6 to 4.0 microns, 

 with rounded ends, occurring singly. Motile 

 by means of one or occasionally two polar 

 fiagella. Granular staining. Gram-negative. 



Note: All differential media e.xcept the 

 fresh-water broth, litmus milk and potato 

 were prepared with sea water. 



Gelatin colonies: Circular or irregular 

 with liquefaction; yellowish gray. 



Gelatin stab: Napiform liquefaction. 

 Filiform growth along line of stab. 



Agar colonies: 2 to 3 mm in diameter, 

 circular, undulate, convex, radial folds, 

 smooth. 



Agar slant: Abundant, echinulate, glis- 

 tening, gummy growth with pale pink pig- 

 ment. 



Sea-water broth: Scant pellicle; moder- 

 ate turbidity; moderate, flocculent sedi- 

 ment. 



Fresh-water broth: No visible growth. 



Litmus milk: No visible change. 



Potato: No visible growth. 



Indole not produced. 



Hydrogen sulfide is produced. 



No acid or gas from glucose, sucrose, lac- 

 tose, glycerol, xylose, mannitol or salicin. 



Starch not hydrolyzed. 



Non-lipolytic. 



Nitrites produced from nitrates. 



Ammonia produced from peptone but 

 not from urea. 



Casein is digested. 



Aerobic, facultative. 



Optimum temperature, between 20° and 

 25° C. 



Source: Isolated from marine bottom 

 deposits. 



Habitat: Probably widely distributed. 



30. Vibrio fetus Smith and Taylor, 1919. 

 (Spirillum causing abortion in sheep, Mac- 

 Fadyean and Stockman, Rept. Dept. Comm. 

 Ministry Agric. on Epizootic Abortion, 

 London, 1909, 156; also see MacFadyean 

 and Stockman, ibid., 1913, 111; Spirillum 

 associated with infectious abortion. Smith, 

 Jour. Exp. Med., 28, 1918, 701; Smith and 

 Taylor, ibid., 30, 1919, 299.) 



fe'tus. L. noun fetus a fetus; L. mas. gen. n. 

 fetus of a fetus. 



Description taken primarily from Plast- 

 ridge, Williams, Easterbrooks, Walker and 

 Beccia (Storrs Agr. Exp. Sta., Bull. 281, 

 1951, 11) and from Rhoades (Bact. Proc, 

 53rd Gen. Meeting, Soc. Amer. Bact., San 

 Francisco, 1953, 34). 



Curved rods that are minute, comma- 

 and S-shaped forms on initial isolation. 

 On transfer, very long, filamentous forms 

 may appear. 0.2 to 0.5 by 1.5 to 5.0 microns. 

 Motile, the comma forms possessing a single, 

 polar fiagellum, and the S forms usually 

 possessing a single fiagellum at each pole. 

 Prolonged incubation and transfer to dry 

 slants or semisolid media produces coccoid 

 forms with one or more fiagella. Occasion- 

 ally encapsulated. Granules present in older 

 cultures. Gram-negative. 



Gelatin: No or poor growth on ordinary 

 gelatin; with the addition of proper nutri- 

 ments, good to excellent growth may occur 

 in 3 to 5 days. No liquefaction. 



Agar plates: No growth. Reich, Morse and 

 Wilson (Amer. Jour. Vet. Res., 17, 1956, 

 140), however, report growth when cultures 

 are incubated in an atmosphere of either 

 helium or nitrogen. 



Agar slant: No surface growth by freshly 

 isolated strains; laboratory strains produce 

 a scant, grayish white, glistening surface 

 growth. Good growth is obtained when 

 cultures are incubated in an atmosphere of 

 helium or nitrogen (Reich et al., loc. cit.). 



Sub-surface agar colonies: Small, yellow, 

 opaque. 



