A sulfate-reducing bacterium isolated from swine manure used phenol as its sole source of carbon and energy. Sulfate was used as the electron acceptor The major end product of phenol metabolism was acetic acid. For every mole of phenol degraded, almost 2 moles of acetic acid were produced. Acetic acid was not degraded further to CO2, indicating that this sulfate-reducing bacterium (SRB) is an incomplete oxidizer unable to carry-out the terminal oxidation of organic compounds. The SRB isolate also used p-chlorophenol as the sole source of carbon and energy. However it did not use the chlorophenolic compounds containing two or more chlorine atoms, dichlorophenol and pentachlorophenol.