- Cause intestinal disease
Overview
- Cause disease in animals and are important zoonoses
Characteristics
- Enterobacteria, but grow more slowly and at lower temperatures than other enterobacteria
- Non-lactose fermentors
- Facuiltative intracellular pathogens
Pathogenesis
- Invasive Yersinia grow inside macrophages
- Survive in phagolysosomes and do not interfere with degranulation or lysosomal fusion
- Resistant to macrophage killing mechanisms
- The bacteria destroy the macrophages in lymph nodes, liver and spleen, causing septicaemia