''Staphylococcus intermedius'' is a

Gram-positive In bacteriology, gram-positive bacteria are bacteria that give a positive result in the Gram stain test, which is traditionally used to quickly classify bacteria into two broad categories according to their type of cell wall. Gram-positive bac ...

catalase Catalase is a common enzyme found in nearly all living organisms exposed to oxygen (such as bacteria, plants, and animals) which catalyzes the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide to water and oxygen. It is a very important enzyme in protecting t ...

positive member of the

bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were am ...

l genus ''

Staphylococcus ''Staphylococcus'' is a genus of Gram-positive bacteria in the family Staphylococcaceae from the order Bacillales. Under the microscope, they appear spherical ( cocci), and form in grape-like clusters. ''Staphylococcus'' species are facultat ...

'' consisting of clustered cocci. Strains of this species were originally isolated from the anterior nares of pigeons, dogs,

cats The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

, mink, and horses. Many of the isolated strains show

coagulase Coagulase is a protein enzyme produced by several microorganisms that enables the conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin. In the laboratory, it is used to distinguish between different types of '' Staphylococcus'' isolates. Importantly, '' S. aureu ...

activity. Clinical tests for detection of methicillin-resistant ''S. aureus'' may produce false positives by detecting ''S. intermedius'', as this species shares some phenotypic traits with methicillin-resistant ''S. aureus'' strains. It has been theorized that ''S. intermedius'' has previously been misidentified as ''S. aureus'' in human dog bite wound infections, which is why molecular technologies such as

MALDI-TOF In mass spectrometry, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) is an ionization technique that uses a laser energy absorbing matrix to create ions from large molecules with minimal fragmentation. It has been applied to the analysis of ...

and

PCR PCR or pcr may refer to: Science * Phosphocreatine, a phosphorylated creatine molecule * Principal component regression, a statistical technique Medicine * Polymerase chain reaction ** COVID-19 testing, often performed using the polymerase chain r ...

are preferred in modern veterinary clinical microbiology laboratories for their more accurate identifications over biochemical tests. ''S. intermedius'' is largely phenotypically indiscriminate from Staphylococcus pseudintermedius and

Staphylococcus delphini ''Staphylococcus delphini'' is a Gram-positive, coagulase-positive member of the bacterial genus ''Staphylococcus'' consisting of single, paired, and clustered cocci. Strains of this species were originally isolated from aquarium-raised dolphins ...

, and therefore the three organisms are considered to be included in the more general 'Staphylococcus intermedius group'.

References

External links

Type strain of ''Staphylococcus intermedius'' at Bac''Dive'' - the Bacterial Diversity Metadatabase
intermedius Bacteria described in 1976 Cat diseases {{Staphylococcaceae-stub