Third Report of the Cooperative, Open-Ended Study of Slowly Growing Mycobacteria by the International Working Group on Mycobacterial Taxonomy

The open-ended study of the International Working Group on Mycobacterial Taxonomy is an ongoing project designed to characterize slowly growing strains of mycobacteria that do not belong to well-established or thoroughly characterized species. In this third report we describe numerical clusters that encompass the type strains of Mycobacterium szulgai, Mycobacterium triviale, Mycobacterium shimoidei, Mycobacterium asiaticum, Mycobacterium simiae, and Mycobacterium malmoense. Descriptions and discussion of the taxonomic status of three additional unnamed clusters, as well as a cluster that encompasses the erstwhile type strain of the presently invalid species “Mycobacterium paraffinicum,” are also presented.