Some can cause disease in humans and other animals (for example, Arcanobacterium haemolyticum infections).

[1] As with various species of a microbiota (including their cousins in the genera Corynebacterium and Trueperella), they usually are not pathogenic but can occasionally opportunistically capitalize on atypical access to tissues (via wounds) or weakened host defenses.

As explained by Yassin et al.,[2] the genus Arcanobacterium was first described by Collins et al. in 1982[1][3] to accommodate bacterial strains previously assigned to the genus Corynebacterium variously (and controversially[1]) as C. pyogenes hominis and then C. haemolyticum, thenceforth to be known as Arcanobacterium haemolyticum.

In 2011, Yassin et al.,[2] on the basis of 16S rRNA signature nucleotide comparisons, menaquinone and phospholipid compositions, and Christie–Atkins–Munch-Petersen (CAMP) tests, proposed that four species—A.

haemolyticum, A. hippocoleae, A. phocae, and A. pluranimalium—should continue to be affiliated with the genus Arcanobacterium, whereas the species A. abortisuis, A. bernardiae, A. bialowiezense, A. bonasi, and A. pyogenes should be reclassified as members of a new genus, Trueperella, as Trueperella abortisuis comb.