Facultative Anaerobic Bacteria from the Sheep's Rumen

SUMMARY: A study has been made of some 300 facultative anaerobic strains, isolated by Heald, Krogh, Mann, Appleby, Masson & Oxford (1953) from the rumen of a hay-fed sheep. The 120 streptococcal isolates all belonged to Lancefield’s serological group D. 82% had fermentation and other reactions similar to Streptococcus bovis; 6% resembled Str. faecalis and the remainder (12%) were unclassifiable by existing schemes. Str. faecalis could also be isolated from old hay fed to the sheep. Staphylococcal isolates were all coagulase-negative, and eleven out of twelve conformed to subgroup 2 in the classification of Shaw, Stitt & Cowan (1951) . The coliform isolates were mostly of the true intestinal type. A few strains resembled Aerobacter cloacae, but A. aerogenes was not encountered. The large Gram-negative sarcina-like organism, previously detected in rumen contents by Baker, Nasr, Morrice & Bruce (1950) and by Moir & Masson (1952) , has been isolated in pure culture and named Sarcina bakeri. It ferments only glucose.