Gram stain: negative Cell shape: coccoid Arrangement: Oxygen requirements: Other:Chlamydia spp. are among the smallest bacteria -- 0.25 to 1.5 micrometers; obligate intracellular parasites (considered a subgroup or rickettsias); can be cultivated only in living cells or yolk sacks of chicken embryos.
These organisms have a very complex life cycle that includes a number of different forms: "elementary bodies" for transmission from cell to cell; "reticulate bodies" form for division within host cell.
Habitat:
Pathogenicity: causative agent of psittacosis (ornithosis), a form of pneumonia with chills, fever, headache; may lead to nervous system involvement; associated with immune suppressed patients; transmitted by inhalation of droppings and exudate of infected birds. Treatment is tetracycline.
Treatment:
*Has been implicated in triggering an immune response that leads to inflammation of the heart!
Chlamydia psittaci
