Is there a difference between hare syphilis and rabbit syphilis? Cross infection experiments between rabbits and...

Cross infection of rabbits and hares with Treponema paraluiscuniculi from rabbits and the related microorganism from hares, which was provisionally named "Treponema paraluisleporis", revealed that T. paraluiscuniculi affects rabbits clinically, but only causes seroconversion in hares without causing clinical disease, while "T. paraluisleporis" induces disease in both rabbits and hares. The 16S rRNA gene of "T. paraluisleporis" was sequenced (GenBank acc. no. JX899416) and compared to the sequence of T. paraluiscuniculi strain Cuniculi A. A phylogenetic tree based on the sequence alignment of 2002 bp taken from several treponemal strains was constructed. Both "T. paraluisleporis" and T. paraluiscuniculi are clustered together indicating their common origin. The close phylogenetic relatedness of both representatives supports the conclusion that subspecies or ecovar status should be given to these strains rather than species status. A more appropriate species name might be Treponema paraluisleporidarum. The genitive refers to the nominative Leporidae (family of rabbits and hares). The naturally occurring strain in rabbits would than be T. paraluisleporidarum ecovar Cuniculus and the strain from hares T. paraluisleporidarum ecovar Lepus. Since the former seems to have fewer physiological hosts, ecovar Lepus may represent an evolutionary ancestor of ecovar Cuniculus.