The strain was isolated in Sumatra, Indonesia, in 1929 from the blood of a Chinese labourer thought to be suffering from undulant fever (Slot and van der Walle, 1932). They designated the strain Bangkinang I. Walch Sorgdrager (1939) found the strain to be related to strain Rachmat with some agglutinogenic differences.
The strain was later studied by Wolff et al. (1952), who identified it as a separate serovar. The list of serotypes of 1967 (WHO, 1967) mentions the name bankinangwith reference strain Bangkinang I.