Pasteurella vulneris sp. nov., mainly obtained from large cats

Twenty-four strains mainly from lions, tigers and human wounds inflicted by these animals and strains from birds, elephants and a bite wound in a calf were investigated. As a consequence, the new species Pasteurella vulneris is proposed based on the phenotypic and genotypic similarity of strains, as well as differences to the other species of the genus. Monophyly was confirmed by partial 16S rRNA and rpoB gene sequence comparisons. The intra-species identity of P. vulneris 16S rRNA gene sequences was 99–100%, and the identity to strains of Pasteurella multocida was 99% or less. The identity to taxon 46-like of Bisgaard was 96–98%, to taxon 46 of Bisgaard 97–98%, and identities to Pasteurella stomatis , Pasteurella dagmatis , Pasteurella canis and Pasteurella oralis were within the range of 95–97%. The whole genomic sequences of ten strains obtained in a previously published study and analysed by the type strain genome server showed the highest digital DNA–DNA hybridization of 31% to the genome of the type strain of P. multocida and 59–93% between strains of P. vulneris . Average nucleotide identity was 95–98% between members of the new species with 87% to the type strain of P. multocida . Colonies of P. vulneris on bovine blood agar were regular, smooth, convex, opaque, greyish, non-haemolytic and circular after 24 h of incubation at 37 °C. Mucoid colonies are observed for some strains. Analysis of isolates by MALDI-TOF MS clustered them close together and separated them from other Pasteurella species, allowing discrimination and making this the method of choice for identification. The G+C content of the type strain HIM 1004-6 T isolated from a chipmunk (=Schmid351 T =CCUG 77952 T =DSM 118578 T ) is 40.78 mol%, calculated from the whole genome.