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We characterized 13 cultures of the enteric bacterium causing enteric septicemia of catfish by studying their biochemical reactions, deoxyribonucleic hybridizations, and deoxyribonucleic acid guanine-plus-cytosine contents. We confirmed that this bacterium is a new species, which is most closely related to Edwardsiella tarda of the family Enterobacteriaceae. Five strains of the bacterium causing enteric septicemia of catfish were 80% or more related to the type strain, SECFDL GA 77-52 (= CDC 1976-78 = ATCC 33202), in 60°C deoxyribonucleic acid homology reactions. Species level relatedness among the 13 strains which we studied was demonstrated by the more than 80% relatedness in 75°C reactions. The bacterium causing enteric septicemia of catfish was most closely related to E. tarda (56 to 62%) in 60°C reactions. The guanine-plus-cytosine was 53 mol%, as determined by buoyant density centrifugation. We propose the name Edwardsiella ictaluri sp. nov. for the bacterium causing enteric septicemia of catfish.
Hawke et al. (Thu,) studied this question.