Yersinia

Overview

• Cause intestinal disease in animals and are important zoonoses
• 10 species of which Y. pestis, Y. pseudotuberculosis and Y. enterocolitica are pathogenic to animals and humans; Y. pestis is the most pathogenic
• Rodents provide a reservoir of Y. pestis, which is the cause of human plague; fleas transmit the infection to other animals and humans
• Y. pseudotuberculosis and Y. enterocolitica reside in the intestine of domestic and wild animals and birds
• Birds may cause mechanical transfer of the organisms

Characteristics

• Enterobacteria, but grow more slowly and at lower temperatures than other enterobacteria
• Gram negative, non-spore forming, facultative anaerobes - rods or colibacilli
• Non-lactose fermentors
• Facultative intracellular pathogens
• Show bipolar staining in Giemsa-stained smears from animal tissue
• Pathogenic strains identified by serotyping and biotyping

Pathogenesis

• Y. enterocolitica and Y. pseudotuberculosis enter the intestinal mucosa via M cells of the Peyer's patches
• Engulfed by macrphages in the mucosa
• All three invasive species are facultative intracellular organisms and grow inside macrophages
• Plasmid and chromosomal-encoded virulence factors required for survival and multiplication in macrophages
• Survive in phagolysosomes and do not interfere with degranulation or lysosomal fusion
• Resistant to macrophage killing mechanisms
• Antiphagocytic proteins secreted by the organisms interfere with host neutrophils
• Y. pestis is more invasive than the other species and also possesses and antiphagocytic capsule and a plasminogen activator which aids systemic spread; endotoxin also contributes to its pathogenicity
• Transport within macrophages to mesenteric lymph nodes
• Replication in lymph nodes and development of necrotic lesions, with neutrophil invasion
• The bacteria destroy the macrophages causing septicaemia

Clinical infections

• Yersinia pestis

• Yersinia pseudotuberculosis

• Yersinia enterocolitica
  • Pathogen of animals and humans
  • Found in intestinal tract and oral cavity of animals, eg. pigs, leading to infection of humans via contaminated carcasses
  • Enterocolitis in man which lasts 2-3 weeks or develops into a chronic form
  • Enteric disease in farmed deer
  • Ileitis, gastroenteritis, mesenteric adenitis
  • Pathogenicity related to a heat stable enterotoxin

Diagnosis

• Yersinia species grow on blood agar and MacConkey agar at room temperature.
• Y. pseudotuberculosis and Y. enerocolica are motile, unlike Y. pestis
• Biochemical tests to identify particular species
• Specific fluorescent antibody staining of lymph node aspirates to identify Y. pestis

Control

• Control Y. pestis by controlling rodent population and flea control of cats
• Control of other Yersinia species difficult due to their ubiquity

Treatment

• Euthanase or isolate animals suspected of Y. pestis infection; Streptomycin, doxycycline, gentamicin or chloramphinol
• Long-acting tetracyclines, trimethoprim-sulphonamides, aminoglycosides and chloramphicol effective against Y. pseudotuberculosis and Y. enterocolica