Two strains (T16T and S12) of a Gram-reaction-negative, rod-shaped, yellow-pigmented bacterium were recovered from kidneys of feral spawning adult Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and the gills of captive-reared Chinook salmon fingerlings suffering a mortality episode, respectively. Polyphasic characterization revealed that these strains possessed gliding motility, contained a flexirubin-type pigment, proteolysed multiple substrates (i.e. gelatin, casein and elastin), and had a mean DNA G+C content of 35.6 mol%. Sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene demonstrated that strains T16T and S12 were nearly identical to one another (>99 % similarity) and were placed within the genus
Flavobacterium
, with
Flavobacterium aquidurense
CCUG 59847T (98.3 %),
Flavobaterium araucananum
CCUG 61031T (98.2 %) and
Flavobacterium frigidimaris
(AB183888, 98.1 %) being their closest relatives. Subsequent phylogenetic analyses using neighbour-joining, maximum-parsimony and Bayesian methodologies demonstrated that strains T16T and S12 formed a well-supported clade within the genus
Flavobacterium
that was distinct from other
Flavobacterium
species. The major fatty acid constituents of strains T16T and S12 were iso-C15 : 0, C16 : 1ω6c and/or C16 : 1ω7c, iso-C17 : 0 3-OH, and iso-C15 : 0 3-OH according to fatty acid methyl ester analysis. The mean level of DNA–DNA relatedness between strain T16T and
F. aquidurense
CCUG 59847T and
F. araucananum
CCUG 61031T was 23 and 29 %, respectively. Thus, the data accumulated in this study support the suggestion that strains T16T and S12 represent a novel species of the genus
Flavobacterium
, for which the name Flavobacterium spartansii sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is T16T ( = LMG 27337T = ATCC BAA-2541T). Emended descriptions of
F. aquidurense
and
F. araucananum
are also proposed.