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Bacteria were isolated from an industrial water circuit in the Netherlands. These strains were identified using API 20 NE as possible, or likely, Burkholderia pseudomallei. With VITEK 2 some of these strains scored 'low discrimination' for Francisella tularensis, amongst others. A total of twenty-six strains were assigned to the species Pseudomonas brenneri, Pseudomonas gessardii or Pseudomonas proteolytica. Because of the possibility of misidentification of these environmental species as medical- and public-health relevant B. pseudomallei and F. tularensis, an emended description, based on tests results more customarily used in clinical laboratories, was suitable. For this reason, the strains in this study, including the type strains DSM 15294T, DSM 17152T and DSM 15321T, were subjected to a polyphasic identification procedure. This procedure consisted of multiple phenotypic tests, fatty acid analysis, 16S rDNA sequence analysis, matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectronomy and various species-specific molecular tests. Based on the results of the polyphasic procedures, the species descriptions of P. brenneri, P. gessardii and P. proteolytica have been emended.