Streptococcus iniae is a species of Gram-positive, sphere-shaped bacterium belonging to the genus Streptococcus. Since its isolation from an Amazon freshwater dolphin in the 1970s, S. iniae has emerged as a leading fish pathogen in aquaculture operations worldwide, resulting in over US$100M in annual losses. Since its discovery, S. iniae infections have been reported in at least 27 species of cultured or wild fish from around the world. Freshwater and saltwater fish including tilapia, red drum, hybrid striped bass, and rainbow trout are among those susceptible to infection by S. iniae. Infections in fish manifest as meningoencephalitis, skin lesions, and septicemia. S. iniae has occasionally produced infection in humans, especially fish handlers of Asian descent. Human infections include sepsis, toxic shock syndrome, and inflammation of the skin, intervertebral discs, or inner layer of the heart. Identifying S. iniae in the laboratory can be difficult, since the conventional methods used to identify streptococci yield insufficient results. It cannot be grouped by the Lancefield antigen method typically used to categorize Streptococcus species. The two known serotypes can be distinguished biochemically by differences in enzyme activity. Several antibiotics have been used to treat S. iniae infections. History Streptococcus iniae was first isolated in 1972, from subcutaneous abscesses in a captive specimen of Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) suffering from an infection known as "golf ball disease". The bacterium was found to be sensitive to beta-lactam antibiotics, and the dolphin was treated successfully with penicillin and tylosin. The causative organism was recognized to be a new species of Streptococcus, and was given the name Streptococcus iniae in 1976. Around this time, other streptococcal outbreaks occurred in Asia, and the US; some strains associated with the Japanese outbreaks were later suggested to be S. iniae. In the 1980s, a purported new species of Streptococcus, named S. shiloi, was identified as one of the causes of an epidemic of meningoencephalitis (an inflammation of the brain and its surrounding membranes) affecting farmed rainbow trout and tilapia in Israel since 1986. Since S. shiloi was alpha-hemolytic, had a G+C% content of 37% and did not ferment sugar galactose, it was not classified as S. iniae, which is beta-hemolytic, has a G+C% content of 32%, and ferments galactose. In 1995, S. shiloi was found in fact to be beta-hemolytic, and after DNA-DNA hybridization techniques with the ATCC type S. iniae and recalculation of the G+C% content, was reclassified by