noun
: a destructive contagious disease of various mammals and birds that is caused by a bacterium ( Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae ) that may occur in an acute highly fatal septicemic form or take a chronic course marked by endocarditis, arthritis, or urticaria, and that is of especially economic importance in swine and domesticated turkeys — called also erysipelas ; see diamond skin disease, erysipeloid