Taxonomy

• Family: Enterobacteriaceae.
• Genus: Proteus:
  • The genus includes:
    • Proteus mirabilis.
    • Proteus vulgaris.
    • Proteus penneri.
    • Proteus hauseri.
    • Also, three unnamed genomospecies 4, 5, and 6.
  • The genus consists of 80 O-antigenic serogroups.

Etymology

• Gk: Proteus – an ocean god able to change himself into different shapes.
• Latin: mirabilis – wonderful; vulgaris – common.

• Worldwide.

• Normal fecal flora of mammals.
• Found in environment.
• Opportunistic pathogen, occasionally causing infection in animals.
• Proteus infections can cause severe disease but may be misdiagnosed or wrongly considered to be contaminants.

Refereed papers

• Recent references from PubMed and VetMedResource.
• Tomanić D, Biljana B, Nebojša K et al (2022) Environmental bovine mastitis pathogens: Prevalence, antimicrobial susceptibility, and sensitivity to Thymus vulgaris L., Thymus serpyllum L., and Origanum vulgare L. essential oils. Antibiotics 11 (8), 1077 PubMed.
• Abe T, Iizuka A, Kojima H et al (2017) Necrotizing suppurative nephritis in a Japanese black feedlot steer due to Proteus mirabilis infection J Vet Med Sci 79 (4), 709-713 PubMed.
• Drzewiecka D (2016) Significance and roles of Proteus spp bacteria in natural environments. Microb Ecol 72 (4), 741-758 PubMed.
• Gaastra W, van Oosterom R A, Pieters E W et al (1996) Isolation and characterisation of dog uropathogenic Proteus mirabilis strains. Vet Microbiol 48 (1-2), 57-71 PubMed.
• Bijlsma I G, van Dijk L, Kusters J G et al (1995) Nucleotide sequences of two fimbrial major subunit genes, pmpA and ucaA, from canine-uropathogenic Proteus mirabilis strains. Microbiol 141 (Pt 6), 1349-1357 PubMed.