''Mycobacterium xenopi'' is a slow-growing
scotochromogenic species of ''
Mycobacterium
''Mycobacterium'' is a genus of over 190 species in the phylum Actinomycetota, assigned its own family, Mycobacteriaceae. This genus includes pathogens known to cause serious diseases in mammals, including tuberculosis (''Mycobacterium tuberculo ...
''. It was first reported by Schwabacher in 1959, having been isolated in
lesion
A lesion is any damage or abnormal change in the tissue of an organism, usually caused by injury or diseases. The term ''Lesion'' is derived from the Latin meaning "injury". Lesions may occur in both plants and animals.
Types
There is no de ...
s found on a ''
Xenopus laevis
The African clawed frog (''Xenopus laevis''), also known as simply xenopus, African clawed toad, African claw-toed frog or the ''platanna'') is a species of African aquatic frog of the family Pipidae. Its name is derived from the short black ...
'', but the possibility of human infection was not confirmed until 1965. It has been cultured from hot and cold water taps, hospital hot water generators and storage tanks, and other environmental sources.
It has low
pathogenicity
In biology, a pathogen (, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of"), in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ.
The term ...
in humans,
and where infections have been found they are closely associated with
immunocompromised
Immunodeficiency, also known as immunocompromise, is a state in which the immune system's ability to fight infectious diseases and cancer is compromised or entirely absent. Most cases are acquired ("secondary") due to extrinsic factors that affe ...
individuals, such as an extrapulmonary malignancy, alcoholism, diabetes mellitus, or immunosuppressive therapy. Pulmonary disease may be chronic, subacute, or acute; symptoms are indistinguishable from those associated with disease caused by ''M. kansasii''.
Radiographic findings with ''M. xenopi'' pulmonary disease are variable but most often include upper lobe cavitary abnormalities similar to tuberculosis.
Treatment is usually with macrolide, rifampin, and ethambutol with moxifloxacin.
Type strain
The International Code of Nomenclature of Prokaryotes (ICNP) or Prokaryotic Code, formerly the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria (ICNB) or Bacteriological Code (BC), governs the scientific names for Bacteria and Archaea.P. H. A. Sneath ...
: strain
ATCC 19250 = CCUG 28011 = CCUG 31306 = CIP 104035 = DSM 43995 = NCTC 10042.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Type strain of ''Mycobacterium xenopi'' at Bac''Dive'' - the Bacterial Diversity Metadatabase
Acid-fast bacilli
xenopi
Bacteria described in 1959
{{Mycobacterium-stub