any of several infectious diseases caused by the widespread bacterium Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, found in water, soil, and decaying matter. Among the distinct diseases it causes are swine erysipelas (including diamond-skin disease), nonsuppurative arthritis in lambs and calves, post-dipping lameness in sheep, blood poisoning in poultry, and erysipeloid in humans. The bacterium is resistant to many common antiseptics but is destroyed by caustic soda and hypochlorites. Antibiotics, especially penicillin, afford control of these infections in livestock and poultry.

Erysipeloid, wound infection with E. rhusiopathiae, is a hazard to veterinarians, farmers, and animal handlers; it also yields to antibiotics.