Characteristics of the pathogens: Gram-positive bacteria

Abstract

Taxonomists rarely consider the ecological relevance of their findings. Similarly, ecologists ignore taxonomy, which is perceived to be old-fashioned and/or boring.Within the realms of fish diseases, it is apparent that the names of bacterial species are often used with little supporting evidence to justify the use of the names. Also, many studies are based on the examination of single isolates the relevance of which to fish pathology or science in general is doubtful. With the advent of molecular-based methods, the description of new taxa is often based on minimal phenotypic data, which poses problems for determining reliable diagnostic traits.