Mycobacterium pinnipedii

Mycobacterium pinnipedii is a member of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex which primarily infects seals. It is a slowly growing Mycobacterium. The species is named after the pinnipeds, the organisms from which M. pinnipedii was first isolated.^[1]

Mycobacterium pinnipedii
Scientific classification
Domain:	Bacteria
Kingdom:	Bacillati
Phylum:	Actinomycetota
Class:	Actinomycetes
Order:	Mycobacteriales
Family:	Mycobacteriaceae
Genus:	Mycobacterium
Species:	M. pinnipedii
Binomial name
Mycobacterium pinnipedii Cousins et al. 2003,[1] ATCC BAA-688

In 2014, a genetic study showed that a Peruvian human skeleton dating to 1000 CE had been infected with a form of tuberculosis most closely related to M. pinnipedii, suggesting that seals had served as a vector for transmission of tuberculosis from the Old World to the New.^[2]