FAMILY MYCOBACTERIACEAE 



\i 



Distinctive characters : See Mycobac- 

 terium pischnn. 



Source: From the lungs of turtles in 

 the Berlin aquarium. 



Habitat : A parasite in turtles and pos- 

 sibly sparingly distributed in soils. 

 Gordon (Jour. Bact., 34, 1937, 617) found 

 65 out of 215 soil cultures of members of 

 the genus to closely resemble this species. 



11. Mycobacteritim spp. (A miscel- 

 laneous group many of which have been 

 incorrectly identified as Mycobacterium 

 leprae Lehmann and Neumann.) 



Clegg (Phil. Jour. Sci., 4, 1909, 77 and 

 403), Duval (Jour. Exp. Med., 12, 1910, 

 649), Duval and Wellman (Jour. Inf. Dis., 

 //, 1912, 116), Currie, Brinckerhoff and 

 Hollmann (Pub. Health Rep., 35, 1910, 

 1173) and others have described as Myco- 

 bacterium leprae a group of organisms 

 isolated from lepros}^ lesions. Much 

 evidence, summarized by Mclvinley (Med- 

 icine, 13, 1934, 377), points to the conclu- 

 sion that these organisms are not patho- 

 genic and not the causal agent of leprosy. 

 They cannot therefore be included under 

 Mycobacterium leprae as defined above. 



Thomson (Amer. Rev. Tub., 36, 1932, 

 162), Gordon (Jour. Bact., 34, 1937, 617), 

 and Gordon and Hagan (Jour. Bact., 36, 

 1938, 39) recently separated the sapro- 

 phytic members of the genus Mycobac- 

 terium into three main groups and several 

 subgroups. Species names as here de- 

 fined have been added to the key as 

 follows : 



Group I. Fail to survive 60°C for 1 

 hour. Grow at 47 °C. 



a. Utilizes arabinose. 

 Mycobacterium lacticola. 



b. Unable to utilize arabi- 



nose. 

 Mycobacterium sp. 

 Group II. Fail to survive 60°C for 1 

 hour. Do not grow at 

 47°C. 



a. Unable to utilize sorbitol. 



1. Unable to utilize arab- 



inose. 

 Mycobacterium, ranac. 

 Mycobacterium thamno- 



pheos. 

 Mycobacteriuvi sp. 



2. Utilize arabinose. 

 Mycobacteritim mar- 



inum. 

 Mycobacterium sp. 

 h. Utilizes sorbitol. 



Mycobacterimn spp. 

 c. Unable to utilize most 

 carbohydrates. 

 Mycobacterium fried- 



mannii. 

 Mycobacterium sp. 

 Group III. Survive 60°C for 1 hour. 

 Grow at 47 °C. 

 a. Utilizes arabinose. 



Mycobacterium phlei. 

 h. Unable to utilize arabi- 

 nose. 



Mycobacterium sp. 

 In this study Gordon and Hagan in- 

 cluded many recently isolated soil forms, 

 named saprophytic species, pathogens for 

 cold-blooded animals and 19 cultures, 

 from various collections, which bore the 

 name Mycobacterium leprae. Of these 

 so-called Mycobacterium leprae, six be- 

 long to Group I which corresponds with 

 Mycobacterium lacticola and includes 

 many soil forms, two belong to Group 

 Ila which includes Mycobacterium ranae, 

 Mycobacterium thamnopheos and a num- 

 ber of undefined soil forms, while eleven 

 belong to Group lib. The latter group 

 includes a number of soil cultures but no 

 other defined species. 



In the several groups to which so-called 

 Mycobacterium leprae strains belong, 

 some appear to be indistinguishable from 

 soil forms, others are distinguished by 

 habit of growth, utilization of carbohy- 

 drates or by pigmentation. 



12. Mycobacterimn lacticola Lehmann 

 and Neumann. (Bakt. Diag., 2 Aufl., 3, 



