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Medical Definition of Serpulina
1. A genus of spiral bacteria of the family spirochaetaceae. This genus contains two species, serpulina hyodysenteriae and serpulina innocens, which were formerly classified as treponema hyodysenteriae and treponema innocens, respectively. When researchers determined that t. Hyodysenteriae and t. Innocens did not belong to the genus treponema, the new genus was named serpula. Within a short time, however, it was discovered that serpula was already the name of a fungal genus and thus, serpula was changed to serpulina. (12 Dec 1998)