Minute 1. Call to order
The closed meeting was held at 12:30 pm on Tuesday 28 November 2017, in Palmerston North, New Zealand, in conjunction with the 10th meeting of the International Leptospirosis Society. The meeting was called to order by the Chairman, Mathieu Picardeau
Minute 2. Record of attendance
The members present were Ben Adler, Roderick Chappel, Renee Galloway, Marga Goris, David Haake, Paul Levett (Secretary), and Mathieu Picardeau (Chairman). Kathryn Allan and Cyrille Goarant were in attendance as observers.
Minute 3. Minutes of the previous meeting
The minutes of the meeting held in Mérida, México in 2011 had been published (Int J Syst Evol Microbiol 2012, 62:2810–2811)
Minute 4. Membership and office holders
The Chairman and the Secretary indicated their willingness to continue in office. The subcommittee accepted with reluctance the resignation of Ben Adler, who had been a member of the subcommittee since 1986. A decision was taken to invite Kathryn Allan and Cyrille Goarant, who attended the subcommittee meeting as observers, to join the subcommittee as full members for the next meeting.
Minute 5. Minimum criteria for species definition
The subcommittee requested that Mathieu Picardeau prepare an updated version of paper entitled ‘ Leptospira taxonomy: time for a genome-based classification’ previously prepared by Mathieu Picardeau and Rudy Hartskeerl for posting the website of the International Leptospirosis Society website (www.leptosociety.org/resources). The subcommittee requested that the Secretary and Chairman submit this paper to the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.
Minute 6. Recognition of new species and serovars
The subcommittee recognized the description of L. venezuelensis , isolated from a human, a rat and a cow in Venezuela. The description of this species had been published (Puche R, Ferrés I, Caraballo L, Rangel Y, Picardeau M et al. Leptospira venezuelensis sp. nov., a new member of the intermediate group isolated from rodents, cattle and humans. Int J Syst Evol Microbiol. 2018, 68 : 513–517).
There were no new serovars described since the previous meeting in 2015. The subcommittee discussed the sustainability of serotypical characterization of new isolates if the cross-agglutinin absorption test (CAAT) becomes unavailable. The secretary suggested that work should be started on an alternate, genomic approach before the capacity to perform CAAT is lost.
Minute 7. Current membership
The current membership of the subcommittee is as follows: Mathieu Picardeau (Chairman), Paris, France; Paul Levett (Secretary), Regina, Canada; Kathryn Allan, Glasgow, Scotland, Roderick Chappel, Melbourne, Australia; Renee Galloway, Atlanta, USA, Cyrille Goarant, Nouméa, New Caledonia, Marga Goris, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and David Haake, Los Angeles, USA.
Minute 8. Date and venue of the next meeting
The next meeting will be held at the 11th meeting of the International Leptospirosis Society, to be held in Vancouver in 2019.
Minute 9. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 1 : 30 pm on 28 November 2017.