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

Clnical infections

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

Diagnosis

Control

Treatment