50 Year Old Species Gets New Name: Cronobacter
In January some of the world's most distinguished health scientists gathered in Dublin for what they called "1st International Conference on Cronobacter (Enterobacter sakazakii)"
We've been reviewing the conference proceedings. It seems that one of the things they did was change the name of Enterobacter sakazakii to Cronobacter.
Being diplomatic about it, they also recognized both the memory of Dr. Riichi Sakazaki (August 21, 1920 - January 11, 2002) for whom the organism is named (see picture) and Dr. Don J. Brenner, Frances Brenner, Richard Fanning, Arnold J. Steigerwalt, and the late Mary Alyce Fife-Asbury who were all involved in the original Centers on Disease Control(CDC) studies that led to it being recognized as a separate species. They also gave a salute to Dr. Harry Muytjens for "his pioneering work in uncovering its ecology and epidemiology in cases of neonatal meningitis and the important role of powdered infant formula."
It's been 50 years since the first case of neonatal meningitis due to the organism now known as Cronobacter (Enterobacter sakazakii) was documented. That case occurred in 1958, and was reported in 1961 by Urmenyi and White-Franklin.
Obviously, this name-changing is going to eventually be recognized in the name of this blog. In the meantime, and probably for a long time, we will do what every scientist in Dublin did, which is to use the old and new names interchangeably.
What is the different between Crnobacter sakazakii and E. sakazakii. Is it different in taxonomy?