Gram stain: positive Cell shape: rods; club-shaped and pleomorphic Arrangement: Oxygen requirements: Other: Form rudimentary filaments that break into short rods; acid fast organism.
Habitat: common in soil; widespread throughout nature.
Pathogenicity: occasionally cause chronic, difficult to treat pulmonary nocardiosis that can be lethal in immunosuppressed patients. May also cause mycetoma - a localized destructive infection of the feet or hands causing chronic, draining abscesses of the tissues and bones.
Treatment:
*Can cause problems in wastewater plants - causes "bulking" of the fecal material and causes operational problems; potentially dangerous to workers. Nocardia orientalis produces the antibiotic vancomycin.
Nocardia spp.
