A spirochaete or spirochete is a member of the phylum Spirochaetota, which contains distinctive diderm (double-membrane) Gram-negative bacteria, most of which have long, helically coiled cells. Spirochaetes are chemoheterotrophic in nature, with lengths between 3 and 500 μm and diameters around 0.09 to at least 3 μm.
Leptospirosis is a blood infection caused by the bacteria Leptospira that can infect humans, dogs, rodents and many other wild and domesticated animals. Signs and symptoms can range from none to mild to severe. Weil's disease, the acute, severe form of leptospirosis, causes the infected individual to become jaundiced, develop kidney failure, and bleed. Bleeding from the lungs associated with leptospirosis is known as severe pulmonary haemorrhage syndrome.
Leptospira is a genus of spirochaete bacteria, including a small number of pathogenic and saprophytic species. Leptospira was first observed in 1907 in kidney tissue slices of a leptospirosis victim who was described as having died of "yellow fever".
Mycobacterium palustre is a slowly growing mycobacterium first isolated from an environmental source in Finland. It is potentially pathogenic, and has been isolated from human and veterinary clinical specimens.
Leptospira noguchii is a gram-negative, pathogenic organism named for Japanese bacteriologist Dr. Hideyo Noguchi who named the genus Leptospira. L. noguchii is famous for causing the febrile illness in Fort Bragg, NC during World War II. There was 40 cases of this fever documented during each summer from 1942 to 1944; however, there were 0 deaths recorded from this outbreak. Unlike other strains of Leptospira that cause leptospirosis, L. noguchii is characterized by showing a pretibial rash on the victim. Its specific epithet recognises Hideyo Noguchi.
Leptospira interrogans is a species of obligate aerobic spirochaete bacteria shaped like a corkscrew with hooked and spiral ends. L. interrogans is mainly found in warmer tropical regions. The bacteria can live for weeks to months in the ground or water. Leptospira is one of the genera of the spirochaete phylum that causes severe mammalian infections. This species is pathogenic to some wild and domestic animals, including pet dogs. It can also spread to humans through abrasions on the skin, where infection can cause flu-like symptoms with kidney and liver damage. Human infections are commonly spread by contact with contaminated water or soil, often through the urine of both wild and domestic animals. Some individuals are more susceptible to serious infection, including farmers and veterinarians who work with animals.
Streptomyces scabiei is a streptomycete bacterium species found in soils around the world. Unlike most of the 500 or so Streptomyces species it is a plant pathogen causing corky lesions to form on tuber and root crops as well as decreasing the growth of seedlings. Along with other closely related species it causes the potato disease common scab, which is an economically important disease in many potato growing areas. It was first described in 1892, being classified as a fungus, before being renamed in 1914 and again in 1948. Several other species of Streptomyces cause similar diseases to S. scabiei but other, more closely related species, do not.
Lawsonia intracellularis is a species of bacterium. It is obligately intracellular and was isolated from intestines of pigs with proliferative enteropathy disease.
Leptospira fainei is a pathogenic species of Leptospira, first isolated from pigs in Australia and named for University of Otago and Monash University microbiologist Dr. Solomon Faine.
Thermotoga naphthophila is a hyperthermophilic, anaerobic, non-spore-forming, rod-shaped fermentative heterotroph, with type strain RKU-10T.
Leptospira kirschneri is a Gram negative, obligate aerobe species of spirochete bacteria named for University of Otago bacteriologist Dr. Leopold Kirschner. It is a member of the genus Leptospira. The species is pathogenic and can cause leptospirosis, most commonly in pigs.
Bartonella bovis is a pathogenic bacteria first isolated from European ruminants. It is small, fastidious, aerobic, oxidase-negative, gram-negative and rod-shaped. Its type strain is 91-4T.
Leptospira broomii is a species of Leptospira isolated from humans with leptospirosis. The type strain is 5399T.
Paraburkholderia is a genus of Pseudomonadota that are gram negative, slightly curved rods that are motile by means of flagella. They have been reported to colonize endophytic tissues of hybrid spruce and lodgepole pine with a strong potential to perform biological nitrogen fixation and plant growth promotion. Unlike Burkholderia species, Paraburkholderia members are not commonly associated with human infection. Paraburkholderia members form a monophyletic clade within the Burkholderiaceae family, which is what prompted their distinction as a genus independent from Burkholderia species, in combination with the finding of robust conserved signature indels which are unique to Paraburkholderia species, and are lacking in members of the genus Burkholderia. These CSIs distinguish the genus from all other bacteria. Additionally, the CSIs that were found to be shared by Burkholderia species are absent in Paraburkholderia, providing evidence of separate lineages.
Leopold Kirschner was an Austro-Hungarian, Dutch, and New Zealand bacteriologist specializing in leptospirosis. He is known for his work on the survival of Leptospira spp in the environment, research on conditions and media for Leptospira growth, his role in the initial discoveries of leptospirosis in New Zealand, for early epidemiologic descriptions of leptospirosis as an occupational disease of dairy farmers, and for the major pathogenic Leptospira species, Leptospira kirschneri, that was named in his honor.
Solomon Faine was a New Zealand-born microbiologist known for his research on leptospirosis. With Dr. Leopold Kirschner, Faine made early epidemiologic descriptions of leptospirosis as an occupational disease of dairy farmers in New Zealand. The intermediate Leptospira species Leptospira fainei is named in his honor.
Joseph Michael Vinetz is a Professor of Medicine and Anthropology at Yale University, Research Professor at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia and Associate Investigator of the Alexander von Humboldt Institute of Tropical Medicine at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia.
Leptospira wolffii is a gram negative aerobic bacterium in the spirochaete phylum. The species named after Dutch bacteriologist Jan Willem Wolff.
Leptospira biflexa is a spirochaete bacterium in the genus Leptospira and was the first saprophytic Leptospira genome to be sequenced.
Jackie Benschop is a New Zealand Professor of Veterinary Public Health at Massey University, specialising in the animal–human–environment interface, particularly for Leptospira, Campylobacter and Salmonella. She is a member of the World Health Organisation's Steering Committee for the Global Leptospirosis Environmental Action Network, and a co-founder of the African Leptospirosis Network.
