- C. pyogenes in arthritis of sheep post-dipping joint infection and arthritis in pigs and arthritis in cattle
- 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