Abstract
Minute 1. Call to order.
The Chairman, A. MacMillan, called the meeting to order at 12 : 15 on 17 September 2003, in the Science Building Auditorium at the University of Navarra, in Pamplona, Spain. The meeting was held during the Brucellosis 2003 International Research Conference. The aim of this meeting was to focus on the resurrection of the Subcommittee on the Taxonomy of Brucella, and the meeting was announced as a confirming follow-up of the meeting in Nimes, France, in 2000 [MacMillan, Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 56 (2006), 1171].
Minute 2. Record of attendance.
Members present were: A. MacMillan (Chairman) (UK), T. Ficht (Secretary) (USA), M. Banai (Israel), J. Godfroid (Belgium), A. López-Merino (Mexico), E. Moreno (Costa Rica) and I. Moriyón (Spain). A. Cloeckaert (France) and M. J. Corbel (UK) were not present. The meeting had been announced as an open meeting, and everyone interested in the Subcommittee on the Taxonomy of Brucella was invited, resulting in a total attendance of more than 50 people (including D. Ewalt and B. Osterman).
Minute 3. Taxonomy, classification and nomenclature.
After a brief discussion, the entire attending forum agreed unanimously upon a proposal by B. Osterman on a return to pre-1986 taxonomic opinion on the genus Brucella, without any objections or reservations. The Subcommittee decided to contact representatives of the Judicial Commission of the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes in order to clarify the background to ensure that this recommendation on a change in taxonomic opinion on the genus Brucella was in accordance with the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria (the Bacteriological Code); contact was made immediately after the meeting and required clarification was passed between the members. Thus, the Brucella Subcommittee is taking a clear position on a return to pre-1986 Brucella taxonomy; the consequences of this statement imply the re-approval of the six Brucella nomenspecies with recognized biovars. The classical names relating to these six Brucella nomenspecies are validly published in the Approved Lists of Bacterial Names of 1980. The designated type strains are attached to these validly published names; the names and attached designated type strains (together with biovar reference strains) are presented in Table 1.