My watch list
my.bionity.com  
Login  

Yersinia enterocolitica



Yersinia enterocolitica

Yersinia enterocolitica colonies growing on XLD agar plates.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Bacteria
Phylum: Proteobacteria
Class: Gamma Proteobacteria
Order: Enterobacteriales
Family: Enterobacteriaceae
Genus: Yersinia
Species: Y. enterocolitica
Binomial name
Yersinia enterocolitica
(Schleifstein & Coleman 1939)

Yersinia enterocolitica is a species of gram-negative coccobacillus-shaped bacterium, belonging to the family Enterobacteriaceae. Primarily a zoonotic disease (cattle, deer, pigs, and birds), animals which recover frequently become asymptomatic carriers of the disease.[1]

Contents

Pathogenesis

Acute infections

Acute Y. enterocolitica infections produce severe diarrhea in humans, along with Peyer's patch necrosis, chronic lymphadenopathy, and hepatic or splenic abscesses. Additional symptoms may include entero-colitis, fever, mesenteric adenitis, erythema nodosum and acute terminal ileitis, which may be confused with appendicitis or Crohn's disease. See yersiniosis for further details.

Treatment

Treatment of Y. enterocolitica infections requires aggressive antibiotic therapy, typically involving a combination of chloramphenicol, ampicillin, and polymyxin.[1]

Long-term effects

Y. enterocolitica infections are sometimes followed by chronic inflammatory diseases such as arthritis.[2]

Y. enterocolitica seems to be associated with autoimmune Graves-Basedow thyroiditis.[3] Whilst indirect evidence exists, direct causative evidence is limited,[4] and Y. enterocolitica is probably not a major cause of this disease, but may contribute to the development of thyroid autoimmunity arising for other reasons in genetically susceptible individuals.[5] It has also been suggested that Y. enterocolitica infection is not the cause of auto-immune thyroid disease, but rather is only an associated condition; with both having a shared inherited susceptibility.[6] More recently the role for Y. enterocolitica has been disputed.[7]

 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Yersinia_enterocolitica". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
Your browser is not current. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 does not support some functions on Chemie.DE