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* Cause [[Intestines - disease due to pathogens|intestinal disease]]
      
===Overview===
 
===Overview===
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*Cause disease in animals and are important zoonoses
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*Cause [[Intestines - disease due to pathogens|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
 
*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
 
*Rodents provide a reservoir of ''Y. pestis'', which is the cause of human plague; fleas transmit the infection to other animals and humans
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===Clnical infections===
 
===Clnical infections===
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*''Yersinia pestis''
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**Cause of bubonic plague in humans, transmitted via fleas from infected rats
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**Not a significant veterinary disease
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**Disease in rats and other rodents similar to the disease in humans
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**Bubonic form can lead to the pneumonic form, which is highly contagious and usually fatal
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**Humans and domestic and wild animals incidental hosts
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**Plague has rarely been reported in dogs, cats, camels, elephants, deer
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**Cats can acquire the disease from ingesting dead rodents, and show lymphadenopathy and abscesses
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**Fever, lethargy, swelling and abscessation of lymph nodes particularly in head and neck region
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**50% mortality if not treated
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**Possesses 3 plasmids, 2 of which are unique to this species; these encode an endotoxin, and coagulase and fibrinolytic activity
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*''Yersinia pseudotuberculosis''
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**Less virulent than ''Y. pestis'' but closely related
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**Mainly infect in animals
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**One plasmid, required for virulence
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**Sporadic cases of pseudotuberculosis in animals and man
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**Wild birds and rodents provide a reservoir of infection by harbouring the the pathogen in their intestinal tract
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**Sources include food and water contaminated by faeces
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**Multiplication in macrophages leads to granuloma formation
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**Granulomas occur in the gut wall and mesenteric lymph nodes
    
===Diagnosis===
 
===Diagnosis===
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