has_part has part has_part bearer of at some time has role at some time zoonotic disposition brucellosis pathogen role Brucellaceae Bacteria Bacteria Brucella Brucella Brucella Meyer and Shaw 1920 GC_ID:11 PMID:8573514 ncbi_taxonomy Brucella is a genus of Gram-negative bacteria.[1] They are small (0.5 to 0.7 by 0.6 to 1.5), non-motile, non-encapsulated coccobacilli, which function as facultative intracellular parasites. Brucella is the cause of brucellosis, which is a zoonosis. It is transmitted by ingesting infected food, direct contact with an infected animal, or inhalation of aerosols. Transmission from human to human, for example through sexual intercourse or from mother to child, is exceedingly rare, but possible.[2] Minimum infectious exposure is between 10 - 100 organisms. Brucellosis primarily occurs through occupational exposure (e.g. exposure to cattle, sheep, pigs), but also by consumption of unpasteurized milk products. There are a few different species of Brucella, each with slightly different host specificity. B.melitensis which infects goats and sheep, B. abortus which infects cattle, B. suis infects pigs, B.ovis infects sheep and B.neotomae. Recently new species were discovered, in marine mammals (B.pinnipedialis and B.ceti ), in the common vole Microtus arvalis (B.microti ), and even in a breast implant (B.inopinata ). However, the new NCBI taxonomy has named all Brucella species Brucella melitensis. They include Brucella melitensis 16M and 5 other biovars: abortus, canis, neotomae, ovis, and suis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brucella genome of Brucella