A chemically defined medium and a relatively simple semidefined medium (SDM) which allow good growth of Corynebacterium pyogenes, a nutritionally fastidious animal pathogen, were described. The SDM contained glucose, trypticase, yeast extract, hemin, minerals, cysteine x HCl, and NaHCO3. To obtain a chemically defined medium, yeast extract in SDM was replaced with a defined mixture of nucleic acid bases, vitamins, amino acids, and trace minerals, and trypticase was replaced by myo-inositol (1 microgram/ml of medium).