Forty strains described as Mycobacterium abscessus, Myco. borstelense, Myco. chelonei or Myco. runyonii, and isolated in three different continents, have been examined culturally, biochemically and serologically. In common with others we were able to divide the strains into two groups, but these were too similar to one another to merit separate specific status. All the American strains, most of the African strains and only one European strain belonged to one group. Twenty out of 21 European strains and a single African strain constituted the second group. It was concluded that these were two geographical variants of a single species for which the oldest valid name is Mycobacterium chelonei Bergey et al., and it is recommended that this name be adopted.
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