A Comparison of Four Species of Mycobacteria

Abstract

Expanded descriptions of Mycobacterium phlei Lehmann and Neumann, Myco-bacterium smegmatis (Trevisan) Lehmann and Neumann, Mycobacterium fortuitum Cruz, and the species tentatively designated as Mycobacterium rhodochrous (Overbeck) Gordon and Mihm are presented. These characterizations are based on 40, 95, 80, and 79 strains respectively, upon which 39 different tests and observations were made. These tests and observations provide a distinctive group of criteria for each species by which old stock strains, new isolates, and variants of the same species can be recognized. The use of MacConkey and oxalate or mucate agars is offered as a presumptive test for the identification of strains of Mycobacterium fortuitum, a species represented by more than 20% of the strains of mycobacteria sent to this laboratory by investigators in human and veterinary medicine.