Taxonomic studies on Mycobacterium leprae.

M. leprae harvested from livers and spleens of infected armadillos showed close similarity in biochemical characteristics with M. vaccae than with any other cultivable mycobacteria. Further more. M. lepraemurium was least similar to M. leprae. Thus, M. leprae can be linked with fast-growing groups of acid-fast bacilli, and perhaps most closely with the M. vaccae complex.