Abstract
The taxonomic affiliation of Campylobacter hyoilei was reevaluated by examining a variety of phenotypic and genotypic criteria. Whole-cell protein electrophoresis and a comparison of 66 phenotypic characters revealed that reference strains of C. hyoilei were indistinguishable from Campylobacter coli strains. These data were confirmed by a DNA-DNA hybridization level of 67% between the type strains of the two species. Several species-specific assays based on PCR amplification or probe hybridization further substantiated that C. coli strains and C. hyoilei strains are indistinguishable. It is therefore concluded that C. hyoilei and C. coli represent the same species and that the former name should be regarded as a junior synonym of the latter name.