588 



MANUAL OF DETERMINATIVE BACTERIOLOGY 



short chains. Non-motile. Gram- 

 negative. 



Requires the X factor for its growth. 



Blood agar colonies : Small, clear, trans- 

 parent, entire. Old colonies become 

 opaque. 



Blood broth : Turbid. 



Blood milk mixture: Doubtful de- 

 velopment. 



Indole is formed. 



Nitrites produced from nitrates. 



Acid but no gas from glucose, fructose, 

 galactose, mannitol, sucrose and xylose. 

 No acid from maltose, lactose dextrin, 

 arabinose or glycerol. (Rivers, Zoc. cit.) 



Optimum temperature 37°C. 



Aerobic, facultative. 



Habitat : Occurs in large numbers in 

 preputial secretions of dogs. 



Appendix I:* The following species has 

 been placed in the tribe Hemophileae 

 by Van Rooyen (Jour. Path, and Bact., 

 43, 1936, 469). It has been pointed out 

 by Buchanan (General Systematic Bac- 

 teriology, 1925, 490) that the genus name 

 Streptobadllus is invalid. 



Streptobacillus moniliformis Levaditi, 

 Nicolau and Poincloux. (Compt. rend. 

 Acad. Sci., Paris, 180, 1925, 1188.) 



This organism is regarded as identical 

 with Haverhillia multiformis Parker 

 and Hudson (Amer. Jour. Path., 2, 1926, 

 357) by Van Rooyen {loc. cit.). Topley 

 and Wilson (Princip. Bact. and Immun., 

 2nd ed., 1936, 270) regard it as identical 

 with their Actinomyces muris {Strepto- 

 thrix ratti Schottmtiller), the cause of 

 rat-bite fever. Asterococcus muris Heil- 

 man. Jour. Inf. Dis., 69, 1941, 32. See 

 Actinomyces muris ratti in the Appendix 

 to the genus Streptomyces. Jordan and 

 Burrows (Textb. of Bact., 14th ed., 1946, 

 614) consider all these names synony- 

 mous. Dawson and Hobby (Proceed- 

 ings, Third Internal. Congr. for Micro- 



biol., New York, 1940, Section I, 177) 

 suggest that the pleuropneumonia-like 

 cultures isolated from Streptobacillus 

 moniliformis really represent variant 

 phases in the growth of this organism. 



Description from Levaditi et al. {loc. 

 cit.) and Brown and Nunemaker (Bull. 

 Johns Hopkins Hosp., 70, 1942, 201). 



Streptobacilli : 2.0 to 3.0 microns in 

 length, pleomorphic, with branching 

 filaments up to 30 to 40 microns long, 

 fragmented, bacillary and coccobacillary 

 forms. Swollen and club-shaped cells 

 are found. Morphology is best demon- 

 strated by aniline dyes, e.g. Wayson's 

 plague stain. Non-motile. Gram-nega- 

 tive. 



Enriched media are required for good 

 growth. Best liquid media are rabbit 

 blood and broth containing serum or 

 ascitic fluid. Best solid media are 

 glycerol extract of potato-infusion 

 broth-egg yolk medium and nutrient 

 agar containing serum. 



Blood agar or ascitic serum agar : Col- 

 onies small, clear. 



Blood plates: Growth slow. Numer- 

 ous small whitish colonies appear on the ■ 

 third day. 



Veillon's medium: Punctiform col- 

 onies, abundant in depth, less growth at 

 surface. No gas. 



Broth with ascitic fluid and globular 

 extract : Good growth, forming clots 

 which precipitate and are rather adherent 

 to one another. Growth rapidly re- 

 duces the pH of the medium killing the 

 bacteria in cultures 24 hrs. old. 



Milk: Slow growth. No coagulation. 



Loffler's serum: Poor growth. 



Virulent for rabbits and mice. 



Good growth at 37 °C. 



Facultative anaerobe. Grows better 

 under anaerobic conditions in the pres- 

 ence of added CO2, than in the presence 

 of air. 



Source : Isolated from a case of a febrile, 



* Appendixes I and II arranged by Prof. E. G. D. Murray, McGill Univ., Montreal, 

 P. Q., Canada, March, 1946. 



