FAMILY MYCOBACTERIACEAE 



889 



Coun., London, Xo. 182, 1933) finds a 

 difference in the arrangement of the indi- 

 vidual cells of the S and R types. 



Source : From butter, plant dust, cow 

 manure . 



Habitat : Gordon (Jour. Bact., 34, 1937, 

 617) found 1 culture isolated from nasal 

 exudate, 1 from bovine lymph gland and 

 94 isolated from soil, out of a group of 

 215 soil cultures belonging to the genus, 

 to be either identical with or very closely 

 related to this species. If these strains 

 are valid members of the species, Myco- 

 bacterium lacticola is widely distributed 

 in soil, dust, dairy products, etc. 



13. Mycobacterium phlei Lehmann and 

 Neumann. (Timotheebaciilus or Gras- 

 bacillus I, Moeller, Iherapeutischen 

 Monatsheften, 12, 1898, 607; IMoeller, 

 Deut. med. Wclmschr., 24, 1898, 376; 

 Lehmann and Neumann, Bakt. Diag., 

 2 Aufl., 2, 1899, 411; Mycobacterium 

 moelleri Chester, Manual Determ. Bact., 

 1901, 358; Sclerothrix phlei Vuillemin, 

 Encyclopedie Mycologique, Paris, 2, 

 1931, 160.) From :^I. L. Phleum, a genus 

 of grasses. 



Description from Moeller (loc. cit.) and 

 Jensen (Proc. Linnean Soc. New So. 

 Wales, 59, 1934, 32). 



Slender rods : 0.2to 0.5 by 1 to 4 microns, 

 sometimes club-shaped, frequently 

 beaded, rarelj^ branched. Strongly acid- 

 fast and acid -alcohol -fast in cultures 

 older than 2 to 3 days, in younger cultures 

 there are generally many non-acid-fast 

 cells. Non-motile. Gram-positive. 



Gelatin colonies : Small, 0.5 to 1 mm in 

 diameter; irregular, raised, moist and 

 glistening, finely granular, orange. 



Gelatin stab : Filiform, opaque, orange. 

 No liquefaction. 



Agar colonies : Similar to gelatin colo- 

 nies, yellow to orange. 



Agar slant : Spreading, raised, dry with 

 roughened granular surface, yellow to 

 orange. 



Broth: Turbid, with yellow pellicle. 



Dorset's egg medium: Spreading, 

 raised, dry, orange. 



Loeffier's serum: Similar to Dorset's 

 egg medium, creamy to j-ellow. 



Glj'cerol broth : Thin transparent pelli- 

 cle, later becoming thickened, rough, 

 wrinkled and yellow to pink, still later a 

 flaky sediment. 



Litmus milk : Yellow flocculi on sur- 

 face, slowly becomes alkaline. No co- 

 agulation. 



Potato: Thick, dry, j'cllow, adherent 

 growth. 



Long's medium lacking glycerol : Abun- 

 dant growth. Long's medium with 5 

 per cent glycerol : No acid formed 

 (Thomson, Amer. Rev. Tub., 26, 1932, 

 162). 



Nitrites are produced from nitrates. 



Indole not formed. 



Carbohydrates : Glucose, fructose, arab- 

 inose, trehalose, mannitol and galactose 

 are utilized; sucrose and lactose are not 

 utilized (Merrill, Jour. Bact., 20, 1930, 

 235; Gordon, Jour. Bact., 34, 1937, 617). 



Temperature relations : Survives 60°C 

 for 1 hour, grows at 47°C (Thomson, 

 Amer. Jour. Tub., 26, 1932, 162); opti- 

 mum for growth 37°C, range 20° to 58°C 

 (Bynoe). 



Optimum pH 6.8 to 7.3; range 5.5 to 

 10.0. 



Pathogenicitj- : The injection of large 

 numbers of organisms into guinea pigs 

 results in a local abscess of a few weeks' 

 duration, occasionally small abscesses de- 

 velop in the regional lymph glands or 

 the visceral organs. According to Mayer 

 (Cent. f. Bakt., I Abt., 26, 1899, 331) and 

 others, the injection of the organisms 

 along with butter or other fat increases 

 the pathological reaction. 



Variation: Haag (Cent. f. Bakt., II 

 Abt., 71, 1927, 1) and Bynoe (Thesis, 

 McGill University, Montreal, 1931) find 

 two or three colony types : an R form 

 which fits into the description of the 

 species given above and an S type which 

 grows as a perfectlj' smooth, raised, 

 moist, glistening colony with an entire 

 margin. Cooper (Jour. Inf. Dis., 54, 

 1934, 236) distinguished pigmented and 

 non-pigmented types. 



