[Salmonella taxonomy]

Throughout the years, Salmonella nomenclature has suffered continual revisions, due to the confusion created by the different criteria adopted by the several groups of researchers. At the present time, it is recognized that the genus Salmonella is a single species, composed by seven taxa, with the level of subspecies (subsp.), which can be divided into serovars, described in the Kauffmann-White scheme. The name of four the species type Salmonella is Salmonella enteral sp. nov. nom. rev. The serovar of the taxon I is designated, for instance, Salmonella subsp. I ser. Typhimurium. For the other taxa, less frequent in human or animal pathology, the name of the subsp., followed by the antigenic formula (e.g. Salmonella subsp. IV 50: b-) is used. This criterion has been validated by the International Committee of Systematic Bacteriology and the names of the serovars are included in the Approved Lists of Bacterial Names.