Pseudomonas simiae sp. nov., isolated from clinical specimens from monkeys (Callithrix geoffroyi) Ana I. Vela, 1 Marı ´a C. Gutie ´ rrez, 2 Enevold Falsen, 3 Eduardo Rolla ´n, 4 Isabel Simarro, 1 Pilar Garcı ´a, 4 Lucas Domı ´nguez, 1 Antonio Ventosa 2 and Jose ´ F. Ferna ´ ndez-Garayza ´ bal 1 Correspondence Jose ´ F. Ferna ´ ndez-Garayza ´ bal garayzab@vet.ucm.es 1 Departamento Sanidad Animal, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad Complutense, Avda Puerta de Hierro s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain 2 Departamento de Microbiologı ´a y Parasitologı ´a, Facultad de Farmacia, Sevilla, Spain 3 Culture Collection, Department of Clinical Bacteriology, University of Go ¨ teborg, Sweden 4 Departamento de Medicina y Cirugı ´a Animal, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain An unusual Gram-negative, catalase- and oxidase-positive, rod-shaped bacterium isolated from different clinical samples from two monkeys (Callithrix geoffroyi) was characterized by phenotypic and molecular genetic methods. The micro-organism was tentatively identified as a Pseudomonas species on the basis of the results of cellular morphological and biochemical tests. Fatty acid studies confirmed this generic placement and comparative 16S rRNA gene sequencing studies demonstrated that the unknown isolates were phylogenetically closely related to each other (100 % sequence similarity) and were part of the ‘Pseudomonas fluorescens intrageneric cluster’. The novel bacterium, however, was distinguished from other phylogenetically related species of Pseudomonas by DNA–DNA hybridization studies and biochemical tests. On the basis of both phenotypic and phylogenetic findings, it is proposed that the novel Pseudomonas isolates are classified as Pseudomonas simiae sp. nov. The type strain of P. simiae is OLi T (=CCUG 50988 T =CECT 7078 T ). Pseudomonads are widely distributed in agricultural soils, in freshwater and marine environments and in plants and animals. The genus Pseudomonas includes species that can be pathogenic for humans and animals (Palleroni, 1984, 1993). Pseudomonas aeruginosa is currently the most significant pathogenic species in the genus Pseudomonas. This micro-organism has been frequently associated with different human and animal infections (Lausen et al., 1986; Coalson et al., 1988; Las Heras et al., 1999; Daly et al., 1999; Poirel et al., 2004). Other Pseudomonas species have also been involved in human infections, such as Pseudomonas stutzeri (Jiraskova & Rozsival, 1998; Puzenat et al., 2004), Pseudomonas fluorescens (Smith et al., 2002) and Pseudo- monas putida (Franzetti et al., 1992; Lombardi et al., 2002). However, animal infections caused by Pseudomonas species other than P. aeruginosa are often not reported. In this work, we have used phenotypic and molecular genetic methodol- ogies to facilitate the characterization of some Pseudomonas- like organisms recovered from clinical samples from monkeys (Callithrix geoffroyi). On the basis of our findings, we propose a novel Pseudomonas species that is taxonomi- cally affiliated to the ‘P. fluorescens intrageneric cluster’ described by Anzai et al. (2000). A juvenile female monkey (C. geoffroyi) and its offspring were submitted to the necropsy service of the Veterinary School Hospital in Madrid, Spain. These animals were housed in the same cage at the submitting facility, a Primate Conservation Centre, and were separated from the rest of the animals. The female monkey was found dead 2 days prior to the death of its offspring. Neither of these two animals had shown clinical signs of disease during the 24 h preceding their deaths. Glomerulonephritis with secondary uraemic pneumonitis and acute bronchointerstitial pneu- monia were the clinical signs observed after post-mortem examination of the female monkey and the offspring, respectively. Gram-stained sections of the lungs of the offspring revealed the presence of Gram-negative rods inside the pulmonary alveoli. Samples from the lungs, liver and brain of the female monkey and its offspring were taken for microbiological The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain CCUG 50988 T is AJ936933. 64378 G 2006 IUMS Printed in Great Britain 2671 International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology (2006), 56, 2671–2676 DOI 10.1099/ijs.0.64378-0