Reclassification of subsp. Ottem . 2009 as sp. nov., subsp. subsp. nov. and emended description of .

is a fastidious facultative intracellular bacterial pathogen that causes 'piscine francisellosis', a serious disease affecting both marine and fresh water farmed and wild fish worldwide. Currently two subspecies are recognized, i.e. subsp. and subsp. . In the present study, the taxonomy of was revisited using a polyphasic approach, including whole genome derived parameters such as digital DNA-DNA hybridization, whole genome average nucleotide identity (wg-ANIm), whole genome phylogenetic analysis, whole genome G+C content, metabolic fingerprinting and chemotaxonomic analyses. The results indicated that isolates belonging to subsp. represent a phenotypically and genetically homogenous taxon, clearly distinguishable from subsp. that fulfils requirements for separate species status. We propose, therefore, elevation of subsp. to the species rank as sp. nov. with the type strain remaining as Ehime-1 (DSM 21254=LMG 24544). Furthermore, we identified sufficient phenotypic and genetic differences between subsp. recovered from diseased farmed Atlantic salmon in Chile and those isolated from wild and farmed Atlantic cod in Northern Europe to warrant proposal of the Chilean as a novel subspecies, i.e. subsp. subsp. nov. with strain PQ1106 (CECT 9798=NCTC14375) as the type strain. Finally, we emend the description of by including further metabolic information and the description of atypical strains.