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  • Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis may cause myositis
  • Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis in deep pyoderma

Overview

  • Common inhabitants of skin and mucous membranes of animals
  • Cause pyogenic infections
  • Most species host specific


Characteristics

  • Small, tough, Gram positive rods
  • Pleomorphic
  • Cluster together to resemble Chinese characters - coryneform morphology
  • Known as diphtheroids
  • Catalase positive, oxidase negative
  • Facultative anaerobes
  • Require enriched media for growth
  • Non-motile


Clinical infections

  • Infection follows tissue trauma
  • Suppurative lesions
  • C. pseudotuberculosis casues caseous lymphadenitis in sheep
  • Carried on skin of sheep
  • Produces a phospholipase toxin
  • Infection through shearing wounds
  • Facultative intracellular pathogen inside macrophages
  • Ulcerative lymphangitis in horses


Diagnosis