Correspondence

The isolation and identification of a novel, slow-growing, scotochromogenic, mycobacterial species is reported. A strain, designated MUP 1182T, was isolated from a cervical lymph node of a 3-year-old child. MUP 1182T is alcohol- and acid-fast, with a lipid pattern that is consistent with those of species that belong to the genus Mycobacterium. It grows slowly at 25–37 6C, but does not grow at 42 6C. The isolate was revealed to be biochemically distinct from previously described mycobacterial species: it has urease and Tween hydrolysis activities and lacks nitrate reductase, 3-day arylsulfatase and b-glucosidase activities. Comparative 16S rDNA sequencing showed that isolate MUP 1182T represents a novel, slow-growing species that is related closely to Mycobacterium lentiflavum and Mycobacterium simiae. On the basis of these findings, the name Mycobacterium parmense sp. nov. is proposed, with MUP 1182T (=CIP 107385T=DSM 44553T) as the type strain. In recent years, the role ofMycobacterium scrofulaceum, one of the non-tuberculous mycobacteria, as an aetiological agent of mycobacterial cervical lymphadenitis (scrofula) seems to have declined. An increasing number of cases caused by Mycobacterium avium has been reported, and other cases due to newly identified, scotochromogenic mycobacteria, such as Mycobacterium celatum, Myco-bacterium heidelbergense, Mycobacterium interjectum and Mycobacterium tusciae, have been described (Springer et al.