COMPOSITIONS COMPRISING BACTERIAL STRAINS

1 .- 30 . (canceled)

31 . A method of treating a subject in need thereof, comprising:

administering to said subject a pharmaceutical composition that comprises at least 1×10 3 colony forming units (CFU)/g of a bacteria strain of the genus Erysipelatoclostridium with respect to a total weight of said pharmaceutical composition,

wherein said bacteria strain comprises a polynucleotide of a 16S rRNA gene that has at least 95% identity to the polynucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:3, as determined by a Smith-Waterman homology search algorithm using an affine gap search with a gap open penalty of 12, a gap extension penalty of 2, and a BLOSUM of 62, and

wherein said pharmaceutical composition comprises said bacteria strain in a therapeutically effective amount that is sufficient to treat said subject when administered to said subject.

32 . The method of claim 31 , wherein said bacteria strain is capable of at least partially colonizing an intestine of said subject.

33 . The method of claim 31 , wherein said pharmaceutical composition is formulated for delivery to an intestine of said subject.

34 . The method of claim 31 , wherein said pharmaceutical composition is encapsulated.

35 . The method of claim 31 , wherein said bacterial strain is dried.

36 . The method of claim 31 , wherein said administering comprises oral, rectal, nasal, buccal, sublingual, or subcutaneous administration.

37 . The method of claim 31 , wherein said pharmaceutical composition further comprises a pharmaceutically acceptable excipient, diluent, or carrier.

38 . The method of claim 31 , wherein said pharmaceutical composition comprises from about 1×10 3 to about 1×10 11 CFU/g of the bacteria strain with respect to the total weight of said pharmaceutical composition.

39 . The method of claim 31 , wherein said bacteria strain comprises a polynucleotide of a 16S rRNA gene that has at least 99% identity to the polynucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:3, as determined by a Smith-Waterman homology search algorithm using an affine gap search with a gap open penalty of 12, a gap extension penalty of 2, and a BLOSUM of 62.

40 . The method of claim 31 , wherein said bacteria strain comprises a 16S rRNA gene that comprises the polynucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 3.

41 . The method of claim 31 , wherein said bacteria strain is the strain deposited with the NCIMB accession number NCIMB 42688.

42 . The method of claim 31 , wherein said bacteria strain is of species Erysipelatoclostridium ramosum.

43 . The method of claim 31 , wherein said bacteria strain is a spore-forming bacterial strain.

44 . The method of claim 31 , wherein said subject is human.