Species/Subspecies: Macrorhabdus ornithogaster
Category: Animal pathogen
Etymology: Genus name: long rod.
Species epithet: from the stomach of bird.
Common name: Avian gastric yeast.
Significance:  [Important]   
Taxonomy:
PhylumClassOrderFamilyGenus
AscomycotaSaccharomycetesSaccharomycetales"Incertae sedis"Macrorhabdus
 "Incertae sedis" means that the taxonomic affiliation has not been established.
Macromorphology (smell):
Micromorphology: The cells are big (3.0 x 20-50 µm).
Reproduction:Anamorphic
Spec. Char.:
Disease/effect:
Hosts/substrateDisease/effectClinical picture or result
Birds and particularly budgerigars, cockatiels, and finches, but may also appear on poultry including ostriches. Megabacteriosis, but a more suitable name of this disease would be megamycosis.Infections in the digestiv system of birds, which caue the to lose weight and die from malnourishment.
Diagnostics: Identification can be done by microscopy of the bird's feces, but the fungus does not pass all the way through the digestive system of all affected birds.
Genome Sequence: There is no whole genome sequence reported.
18S rRNA Seq:
ACC-No GenBankStrain/IsolateNumber of NT
KX426586 VS60633 2009 

ITS regions: -
Taxonomy/phylogeny: The taxonomy of this organism is uncertain and it has not yet been placed within any particular family.
Comment:Trivialnamn: avian gastric yeast. It was long believed that this organism was a giant bacterium ("megabacterium") because it is gram-positive and Bacillus-like. However, rRNA sequencing and other techniques has shown that this organism is a yeast-type fungus.
Reference(s): No. 6, 35
Updated:2021-06-23

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Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences