Lactobacillus aviarius sp. nov.: A new species isolated from the intestine of chickens

Lactobacillus aviarius subsp. aviarius sp. nov., subsp. nov. and Lactobacillus aviarius subsp. araffinosus subsp. nov., a new species and two subspecies isolated from the intestine of chickens are described. They are strictly anaerobic, Gram-positive, non-motile, nonspore- forming short rods (coccobacilli); the cells occur singly, in pairs, and sometimes in short chains. They are homofermentative lactobacilli, form DL-lactic acid with a marked excess of L( +)-lactic acid and contain murein of the Lys-Asp type. Strains of L. aviarius subsp. aviarius ferment raffinose, while strains of L. aviarius subsp. araffinosus fail to do so. The organisms are significantly different from the already described species of the genus Lactobacillus in the following properties: morphology, strictly anaerobic growth, carbohydrate fermentation pattern, guanine plus cytosine (G +C) content of DNA and DNA/ DNA homology. The type strain of L. aviarius subsp. aviarius is 75T ( = DSM 20655); the type strain of L. aviarius subsp. araffinosus is ML2T ( = DSM 20653).