Backhans, Annette
- Department of Clinical Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Research article2011Peer reviewedOpen access
Occurrence of pathogenic Yersinia enterocolitica and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis in small wild rodents
Backhans, Annette; Fellström, Claes; Thisted Lambertz, Susanne
Abstract
Rodents are a potential source of pathogenic Yersinia enterocolitica and Y. pseudotuberculosis. In order to study this, 190 rodents were captured and sampled on seven pig farms (n = 110), five chicken farms (n = 55) and six other locations (n = 25) in Sweden. Pigs from three of the pig farms were also sampled (n = 60). Pathogenic Y. enterocolitica was detected by TaqMan PCR in about 5% of rodent samples and 18% of pig samples. Only rodents caught on pig farms tested positive for the pathogen. Y. enterocolitica bioserotype 4/O:3 strains isolated from the rodent and pig samples were compared by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and revealed a high degree of similarity, which was confirmed by random amplified polymorphic DNA. Y. pseudotuberculosis was only detected in one rodent sample. Thus, rodents may be vectors for the transmission of pathogenic Y. enterocolitica to pigs, acting as carriers rather than a reservoir, and should therefore remain an important issue in hygiene control measures on farms.
Keywords
Epidemiology; transmission; Yersinia enterocolitica; Yersinia pseudotuberculosis; zoonotic foodborne diseases
Published in
Epidemiology and Infection
2011, volume: 139, number: 8, pages: 1230-1238
Publisher: CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
SLU Authors
Fellström, Claes
- Department of Clinical Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Department of Clinical Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
UKÄ Subject classification
Animal and Dairy Science
Veterinary Science
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0950268810002463
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/57115