522 



ORDER IV. EUBACTERIALES 



tus of this species with respect to its serol- 

 ogy remains doubtful. Members of this 

 species have been related to group E (Little, 

 Thirteenth Ann. Report, N. Y. State Assoc. 

 Dairy Milk Insp., 1939, 35; Jacob, Thesis, 

 Univ. Reading, 1947). Plastridge and Wil- 

 liams (Jour. Bact., 38, 1939, 352) established 

 11 serological types. 



Action on blood: Slight greening (alpha 

 hemolytic) or indifferent (gamma hemo- 

 lytic) . 



Temperature relations: Growth at 10° 

 and 45° C. Some variation occurs among the 

 individual strains at both extremes of tem- 

 perature, depending, however, upon the 

 previous history of the method for handling 

 the culture. Most strains survive 60° C. for 

 30 minutes. 



Tolerance tests: Growth in broth con- 

 taining 4.0 per cent NaCl but not in 6.5 per 

 cent NaCl. Growth in milk containing 0.01 

 per cent methylene blue but not in 0.1 per 

 cent methylene blue. No growth at pH 9.6. 

 Most strains fail to grow on 10 per cent 

 bile blood agar but a few strains are able to 

 tolerate as nmch as 40 per cent bile. 



Litmus milk: Freshly isolated strains may 

 acidify and curdle milk with reduction of 

 litmus after curdling. Old laboratory strains 

 tend to lose their ability to curdle milk. No 

 digestion. 



Final pH in glucose broth, between 4.6 

 and 4.9. 



No polysaccharide synthesis from sucrose. 



Acid from glucose, fructose, maltose, lac- 

 tose, sucrose, trehalose, mannitol, sorbitol 

 and salicin. Most strains ferment inulin 

 but fail to ferment raffinose. Xylose, arabi- 

 nose and melibiose not fermented. Glycerol 

 fermented aerobically but not anaerobi- 

 cally. 



Starch hydrolyzed by a minority of the 

 strains. Gelatin not liquefied. Sodium hip- 

 purate hydrolyzed, though slowly, by some 

 strains. Esculin split. 



Ammonia produced from arginine. Tyro- 

 sine not decarbo.xylated. 



Relationships : This species represents an 

 important group commonly associated with 



bovine mastitis. Its temperature limits of 

 growth and its ability to ferment the higher 

 alcohols tend to relate this species to the 

 enterococci. However, other characteris- 

 tics, including its nutritional require- 

 ments, clearly differentiate this species 

 from the enterococci and would tend to 

 place it among the viridans streptococci. 



Source: From raw milk and from freshly 

 drawn milk of cows affected with mastitis. 



Habitat: Found in bovine udder infec- 

 tions. 



16. Streptococcus faecalis* Andrewes 

 and Horder, 1906. (Micrococcus ovalis 

 Escherich, Die Darmbakterien des Saug- 

 lings und ihre Beziehungen zur Physiologie 

 der Verdauung. Stuttgart, 1886, 89; re- 

 classified as a streptococcus by Escherich 

 in Jahrb. f. Kinderheilk., 49, 1899, 161; 

 Enterocoque, Thiercelin, Compt. rend. 

 Soc. Biol., Paris, 54, 1902, 1082; Enterococcns 

 'proteijormis Thiercelin and Jouhaud, 

 Compt. rend. Soc. Biol., Paris, 55, 1903, 686; 

 Andrewes and Horder, Lancet, 2, 1906, 708; 

 Streptococcus ovalis Lehmann and Neu- 

 mann, Bakt. Diag., 7 Aufl., 2, 1927, 209 

 and 230.) 



fae.cal'is. L. adj. faex, faecis dregs; M.L. 

 adj. faecalis relating to feces. 



Ovoid cells elongated in direction of the 

 chain; 0.5 to 1.0 micron in diameter. Occur 

 mostly in pairs or short chains. Gram- 

 positive. 



Serology: Belongs to Lancefield's group 

 D. Many serological types and sub-types 

 are known to exist (Takedo, Zeit. Immun- 

 forsch., 86, 1935, 341; Shigeno, ibid., 90, 

 1937, 323). Sharpe and Shattock (Jour. Gen. 

 Microbiol., 6, 1952, 150) established 24 

 serological types based upon agglutinin and 

 precipitin tests. Some cultures of Strepto- 

 coccus faecalis and Streptococcus lactis ap- 

 pear to contain identical type-specific 

 antigens, although they belong to different 

 serological groups (Niven, Thesis, Cornell 

 Univ., 1939; Sharpe, Jour. Gen. Microbiol., 

 7, 1952, 192). 



* Although the specific epithet ovalis has priority, the species name Streptococcus faecalis 

 is being retained here because of its widespread usage and because of the more complete 

 description given by Andrewes and Horder (op. cit., 1906, 708). 



