Recommendations of the Subcommittee on the taxonomy of Campylobacter and related bacteria

P Vandamme and SLW On Laboratorium voor Farmaceutische Microbiologie, Universiteit Gent, Harelbekestraat 72, B-9000 Gent, Belgium The ICSB Subcommittee on the taxonomy of Campylobacter and related bacteria has discussed several contemporaneous issues and makes the following recommendations. (i) The reported synonymy between Campylobacter coli and Campylobacter hyoilei was based on valid taxonomic arguments. The subcommittee therefore discourages the use of the name C. hyoilei. (ii) The revised infrasubspecific nomenclature of Campylobacter sputorum is endorsed. C. sputorum is subdivided into C. sputorum biovar sputorum (characterized by the absence of catalase and urease activity); C. sputorum biovar faecalis (characterized by catalase but not urease activity); and C. sputorum biovar paraureolyticus (characterized by urease, but not catalase activity). (iii) The subcommittee points out that 'Flexispira rappini' is a taxon that is circumscribed by means of morphological criteria. It encompasses multiple Helicobacter species, including Helicobacter bilis and Helicobacter trogontum. (iv) Finally, the subcommittee wishes to point out that the etymology of several specific or subspecific epithets of Campylobacter taxa has been corrected and that the spelling of the epithet 'fecalis' was corrected to 'faecalis'.