Name: Shigella dysenteriae (Shiga 1897) Castellani and Chalmers 1919 (Approved Lists 1980)

Category: Species

Proposed as: comb. nov.

Basonym: "Bacillus dysentericus" Shiga 1897

Etymology: dy.sen.te’ri.ae. L. gen. fem. n. dysenteriae, of dysentery

Pronunciation (Latin), gender: … dy-sen-TE-ri-a͡e, feminine

Type strain: ATCC 13313; CIP 57.28; DSM 4781; NCTC 4837

See detailed strain information at

Conduct genome-based taxonomy at

16S rRNA gene: X96966 Analyse FASTA

Effective publication: Castellani A, Chalmers AJ. Manual of Tropical Medicine, 3rd ed. Williams Wood and Co., New York, 1919.

IJSEM list: Skerman VBD, McGowan V, Sneath PHA. Approved lists of bacterial names. Int J Syst Bacteriol 1980; 30:225-420.

Nomenclatural status: validly published under the ICNP

Taxonomic status: correct name (and explicitly recommended for medical use)

Risk group: 3

• Synonyms:

  • Name	Kind
    "Escherichia coli subsp. shigellae" Dif et al. 2025	homotypic synonym, not validly published, distinct rank
    "Bacillus dysentericus" Shiga 1897	homotypic synonym, not validly published, basonym of name in Approved Lists

• Notes:
  • 🥇 Nomenclatural type of the genus Shigella Castellani and Chalmers 1919 (Approved Lists 1980). Publication: Castellani A, Chalmers AJ. Manual of Tropical Medicine, 3rd ed. Williams Wood and Co., New York, 1919.
  • 😷 The risk group for Belgium has been imported on 2024-02-05. The full classification is: risk group = 3, note = "other than Type I: 2 human pathogen; Type 1: 3 human pathogen - (*)T". — The risk group for Canada has been imported on 2024-02-27. The full classification is: risk group = 2, note = "other than Type 1: 2 Animal classification RG: 2 - Security sensitive biological agent: No - Terrestrial animal pathogen under Canadian Food Inspection Agency authority: No - Containment level: Containment Level 2; Type 1: 2 Security sensitive biological agent: No - Terrestrial animal pathogen under Canadian Food Inspection Agency authority: No". — The risk group for Swiss Confederation has been imported on 2024-02-01. The full classification is: risk group = 3, note = "ausgenommen Serovar 1: 2 **; Serovar 1: 3 **". — The risk group for Germany has been imported on 2023-10-29. The full classification is: risk group = 3, note = "Typ I = Serovar 1: 3 (**) - T; außer Typ I = Serovar 1: 2 ". — The risk group for France has been imported on 2024-08-30. The full classification is: risk group = 3, note = "Type 1: 3 T, (*); autre que le Type 1: 2 ". — The risk group for Sweden has been imported on 2024-02-05. The full classification is: risk group = 3, note = "Typ 1: 3 T - (**); andra än typ 1: 2 T - (**)". — The risk group for Taiwan has been imported on 2024-11-03. The full classification is: risk group = 2, note = "P620 = v, P650 = v". — The risk group for United Kingdom has been imported on 2024-01-31. The full classification is: risk group = 3, note = "Toxigenic Type 1: 3 *; other than Type 1: 2 *". — The risk group for United States has been imported on 2024-02-09. The full classification is: risk group = 2, note = "type 1: 2; default: 2 type 1". — If in doubt, use the risk group given in the regulations for your country and, if these are not available, use the risk group given in the catalogue of the culture collection from which you have obtained or intend to obtain the strain.
  • 🎓 Name mentioned 1831 times in PubMed until 2025-06-04.
  • 🙆 This name is on the List of Recommended Names for bacteria of medical importance (LoRN) as the name to be applied to this species. The name is on LoRN because of the recorded risk group of the species itself.
  • 🧍 According to Bartlett et al. (2022), this species is an established human pathogen. Publication: Bartlett A, Padfield D, Lear L, Bendall R, Vos M. A comprehensive list of bacterial pathogens infecting humans. Microbiology (Reading) 2022; 168:0. 🇬🇧
  • 🧍 According to Yabuuchi, the correct citation is Shigella dysenteriae (Shiga 1897) Castellani and Chalmers 1919, not Shigella dysenteriae (Shiga 1898) Castellani and Chalmers 1919 as cited in the Approved Lists. Publication: Yabuuchi E. Bacillus dysentericus (sic) 1897 was the first taxonomic rather than Bacillus dysenteriae 1898. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2002; 52:1041. 🇯🇵

Parent taxon: Shigella Castellani and Chalmers 1919 (Approved Lists 1980)

Assigned by: Castellani A, Chalmers AJ. Manual of Tropical Medicine, 3rd ed. Williams Wood and Co., New York, 1919.

Linking: To permanently link to this page, use https://lpsn.dsmz.de/species/shigella-dysenteriaeCopy to clipboardLink copied to clipboard

Record number: 780914