Branching involution forms occur on glyc- erol agar. Show irregular staining. Non- motile. Gram-negative. Gelatin: Poor growth. Usually no lique- faction. May be slowly liquefied (Jordan, General Bact., 11th ed., 1935, 491). Agar colonies: Moist, grayish white layer, translucent, ropy, with regular borders. Later become yellowish or yellowish brown. Agar slants: Glistening, moist, ropy, grayish white growth. Glycerol agar: Yellowish growth (Thomp- son, op. cit., 26, 1933, 224). Loeffler's serum: Good growth. Moist, viscid, yellowish colonies develop after 36 to 48 hours. Broth: Turbid, sometimes with a thin pellicle; slimy or ropy sediment. Litmus milk: Coagulation usually occurs after a week with some acid production. Litmus may or may not be reduced. Potato: After 36 to 48 hours, pale yellow "honey-drop-like" colonies, later becoming darker, reddish yellow or chocolate-colored. The medium sometimes has a faint greenish tinge around the growth. Indole not produced. Carbohydrates usually not fermented. Some strains produce small amounts of acid from glucose. Nitrites not produced from nitrates. Aerobic, facultatively anaerobic. Optimum temperature, 37° C. No growth below 20° or above 44° C. Serologically related to Actinohacillus lignieresii Brumpt (Thompson, Jour. Bact., 26, 1933, 225) and to Actinohacillus eqmili Haupt (Haupt, Arch. f. wissensch. u. prakt. Tierheilk., 67, 1934,514). Distinctive characters: Culture media of slightly acid reaction (pH 6.6) are best suited for growth; on potato, honey-drop- like colonies are formed which later darken. Source: Isolated by Loeffler and Schiitz from the lesions of a horse affected with glanders. Habitat: The cause of glanders naturally occurring in solipeds; Felidae and man occasionally are affected. Transmissible to guinea pigs, cats, field mice and to rabbits and dogs, generally not to the white mouse. Genus VI. Calymmatobacterium Aragdo and Vianna, 1913* (Aragao and Vianna, Mem. do Inst. Oswaldo Cruz, 5, 1913, 221; also see Aragao, Brasil Medico, 1919, 74; and ibid., 1933, 473; Donovania Anderson, De Monbreun and Goodpasture, Jour. Exp. Med., 81, 1945, 25.) Ca.lym.ma.to.bac.te'ri.um. Gr. noun calymma mantel, sheath; Gr. dim.neut.n. bac- teriutn a small rod; M.L. noun Calymmatobacterium the sheathed rodlet. Pleomorphic rods which exhibit single or bipolar condensations of chromatin and which occur singly and in clusters. May or may not be encapsulated. Non-motile. Gram-negative. Growth outside of the human body occurs only in the yolk sac or amniotic fluid of develop- ing chick embryo or in a medium containing embryonic j^olk; after adaptation, growth may occur in meat infusion media. Pathogenic for man causing granulomatous lesions, particu- larly in the inguinal region. The type species is Calymmatobacterium granulomatis Aragao and Vianna. 1. Calynimatobacteriuiii granuloma- tis Aragao and Vianna, 1913. (Epithelial cell parasites, Donovan, Indian Med. Gaz., 40, 1905, 414; Aragao and Vianna, Mem. do Inst. Oswaldo Cruz, 5, 1913, 221; Dono- van bodies, Dienst, Greenblatt and Sander- son, Jour. Inf. Dis., 62, 1938, 112; also see Anderson, Science, 97, 1943, 560; Donovania granulomatis Anderson, De Monbreun and Goodpasture, Jour. Exp. Med., 81, 1945, 25.) gra.nu.lo'ma.tis. L. dim. noun granulum a small grain; Gr. suffix -oma, -omatis a swelling or tumor; M.L. noun granuloma a granuloma; M.L. gen. noun granulomatis of a granuloma.
- Revised by Dr. Otto Bier, Department of Immunology, Instituto Biologico, Sao Paulo,
Brazil, May, 1955.
