398 



ORDER IV. EUBACTERIALES 



duck;L. fem.n. pestis plague; L. v. fero to 

 carry; L. adj. pestifer pestilence-carrying; 

 M.L. adj. anatipestifer duck-plague-carry- 

 ing. 



Description prepared by Prof. D. W. 

 Bruner, New York State Veterinary College, 

 Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. 



Short rods, 0.3 to 0.5 by 1.0 to 2.5 microns, 

 occurring singly, in pairs and in short 

 chains. Non-motile. Gram-negative. 



Gelatin stab: Liquefaction. 



Blood agar colonies: Small, circular, 

 transparent, entire. No hemolysis. 



Plain broth (horse meat) : Slight, uniform 

 turbidity that becomes more dense at 48 

 hours of incubation at 37° C. After several 

 days a bluish ring forms at the surface where 

 contact is made with the test tube. No pel- 

 licle is formed. The organism remains viable 

 in this medium for about two weeks. 



Loffler's blood serum: Liquefaction. 



Coagulated egg medium (Dorset) : Lique- 

 faction. 



Huddleson's thionin medium: Growth. 



Huddleson's basic fuchsin medium: 

 Growth. 



Glycerol phosphate agar: Xo growth. 



Bile (10 per cent) in serum agar: Growth. 



Bile (40 per cent) in serum agar: No 

 growth. 



Litmus milk: No visible change. 



Indole not produced. 



Hydrogen sulfide produced in slight 

 amounts. 



Potato: No growth. 



Sodium thioglycollate medium: Growth 

 in a ring about 1 cm below the surface. 



No acid from glucose or other carbohy- 

 drates. 



Nitrites not produced from nitrates. 



May require CO2 for isolation, but be- 

 comes aerobic after several transfers. 



Optimum temperature, 37° C. 



Not pathogenic for laboratory animals; 

 however, with ducks it may produce death 

 following intravenous infection of a freshly 

 isolated culture. Not established as the 

 causative agent in so-called new duck dis- 

 ease. 



Source: Isolated from cases of septicemia 

 in ducklings on Long Island, New York, 

 1932. Reisolated from Long Island ducklings 



by Bruner and Fabricant (Cornell Veteri- 

 narian, U, 1954, 461). 



Habitat: Associated with a disease of 

 ducklings. 



5. Pasteurella pestis (Lehmann and 

 Neumann, 1896) Holland, 1920. (Bacille de 

 la peste, Yersin, Ann. Inst. Past., 8, 1894, 

 666; Pest Bacillus, Aoyama, Ztschr. f. Hyg., 

 21, 1895, 165; Bacterium pestis Lehmann and 

 Neumann, Bakt. Diag., 1 Aufl., 2, 1896, 194; 

 Holland, Jour. Bact., 5, 1920, 219.) 



pes'tis. L. noun pestis plague, pestilence. 



Rods, 1.0 by 2.0 microns, occurring singly. 

 Characteristic bladder, safety-pin and ring 

 involution forms. Non-motile. Polar stain- 

 ing. Gram-negative. 



Gelatin colonies : Flat, gray, with granular 

 margin. 



Gelatin stab: Flat surface growth. Ar- 

 borescent growth in stab. No liquefaction. 



Agar colonies: Grayish white, translu- 

 cent, iridescent, undulate. 



Agar slant: Growth grayish, viscid, thin, 

 moist, translucent. Growth slow, favored 

 by the addition of blood or sodium sulfite. 



Broth: Turbid or clear with flocculi in 

 the fluid. Old cultures show a pellicle with 

 streamers into the fluid (stalactites). Be- 

 comes alkaline more slowly than Pasteurella 

 pseudotuberculosis. See Bessonowa and 

 Lenskaja (Cent. f. Bakt., I Abt., Orig., 119, 

 1930, 430). 



Litmus milk: Slightly acid or unchanged. 

 No coagulation. 



Potato: Scant, grayish growth. 



Indole not produced. 



Lactose and rhamnose not attacked. 

 Variable action on glycerol. 



Nitrites produced from nitrates. 



Temperature relations: Optimum, be- 

 tween 25° and 30° C. Minimum, 0° C. Maxi- 

 mum, between 43° and 45° C. 



Aerobic, facultatively anaerobic. 



Comments: Pasteurella pestis and P. 

 pseudotuberculosis are not definitely dis- 

 tinguishable b.y serological methods 

 (Schiitze, Med. Res. Council, Syst. of Bact., 

 London, 4, 1929, 478, and Wu Lien-teh, in 

 Chun, PoUitzer and Wu, "Plague", National 

 Quarantine Service, Shanghai, 1936). How- 

 ever Thai and Chen (Jour. Bact., 69, 1955, 



