Serpulina alvinipulli sp. nov., a new Serpulina species that is enteropathogenic for chickens.

Strain C1T is an anaerobic spirochaete that causes intestinal disease in chickens. Multilocus enzyme electrophoresis analysis and 16S rRNA sequence comparisons have indicated that this spirochaete is a Serpulina strain. In these investigations, various phenotypic and genomic properties useful for establishing a taxonomic identity for strain C1T were studied. As determined by electron microscopy, cells of the spirochaete measured 8-11 x 0.22-0.34 mum and had a typical spirochaete ultrastructure. Each cell had 22-30 flagella. C1T cells formed weakly beta-haemolytic colonies on trypticase soy agar plates containing 5% bovine blood. The spirochaete reached maximum population densities of 10(9) cells ml-1 with a 2-4 h population doubling time in brain heart infusion broth containing 10% calf serum (BHIS broth). C1T cultures in BHIS broth were positive in tests for hippurate hydrolysis and negative for indole production. Glucosamine, N-acetyglucosamine, glucose, fructose, maltose and mannose were growth substrates for the spirochaete in heart infusion broth containing 7% calf serum (HS broth). During growth in HS broth beneath an O2/N2 (1:99) atmosphere, cells of the spirochaete consumed O2 and glucose and produced H2, CO2, acetate, butyrate and ethanol. Strain C1T DNA had a G+C content of 24.6 mol%. Based on DNA-DNA hybridization analyses, the DNA of strain C1T exhibited 24-39% relative reassociation with DNA of Serpulina hyodysenteriae, Serpulina innocens, Serpulina pilosicoli, Serpulina murdochii and Serpulina intermedia. These results indicate that chicken spirochaete strain C1T has many phenotypic properties common to Serpulina species and, based on DNA hybridization analysis, represents a unique Serpulina species. For this new species the name Serpulina alvinipulli is proposed, for which the type strain is C1T (= ATCC 51933T).