Abstract
Yersinia pseudotuberculosis is an important animal pathogen, particularly for birds, rodents, and monkeys, which is also able to infect humans. Indeed, an increasing number of reports have been published on zoo animals that were killed by this species. One option to treat diseased animals is the application of strictly lytic (virulent) phages. However, thus far relatively few phages infecting Y. pseudotuberculosis have been isolated and characterized. To determine the prevalence of Y. pseudotuberculosis phages in zoo animals, fecal samples of birds and some primates, maras, and peccaries kept in the Tierpark Berlin were analyzed. Seventeen out of 74 samples taken in 2013 and 2017 contained virulent phages. The isolated phages were analyzed in detail and could be allocated to three groups. The first group is composed of 10 T4-like phages (PYps2T taxon group: Myoviridae; Tevenvirinae; Tequatrovirus), the second group (PYps23T taxon group: Chaseviridae; Carltongylesvirus; Escherichia virus ST32) consists of five phages encoding a podovirus-like RNA polymerase that is related to an uncommon genus of myoviruses (e.g., Escherichia coli phage phiEcoM-GJ1), while the third group is comprised of two podoviruses (PYps50T taxon group: Autographiviridae; Studiervirinae; Berlinvirus) which are closely related to T7. The host range of the isolated phages differed significantly. Between 5.5 and 86.7% of 128 Y. pseudotuberculosis strains belonging to 20 serotypes were lysed by each phage. All phages were additionally able to lyse Y. enterocolitica B4/O:3 strains, when incubated at 37°C. Some phages also infected Y. pestis strains and even strains belonging to other genera of Enterobacteriaceae. A cocktail containing two of these phages would be able to lyse almost 93% of the tested Y. pseudotuberculosis strains. The study indicates that Y. pseudotuberculosis phages exhibiting a broad-host range can be isolated quite easily from zoo animals, particularly birds.
Highlights
The genus Yersinia is currently composed of 28 species of which three are known to be pathogenic for humans.1 Yersinia pestis is the causative agent of Plague
Yersinia sp. bacteria were cultivated in lysogeny broth (LB) at 28°C with continuous shaking at 200–225 rpm (Hammerl et al, 2008), while other Enterobacteriaceae were incubated in LB at 37°C
The phages described in this study were isolated from fecal samples of animals kept in the Tierpark Friedrichsfelde, Berlin (Germany)
Summary
The genus Yersinia is currently composed of 28 species of which three are known to be pathogenic for humans. Yersinia pestis is the causative agent of Plague. An increasing number of human yersiniosis outbreaks have been reported for Y. pseudotuberculosis (Inoue et al, 1984; Tertti et al, 1984; Nakano et al, 1989; Press et al, 2001; Hallanvuo et al, 2003; Jalava et al, 2004, 2006; Nuorti et al, 2004; RimhanenFinne et al, 2009; Nakamura et al, 2013; Pärn et al, 2014; Vasala et al, 2014; Williamson et al, 2016) This species is very closely related to Y. pestis and it is not surprising that Y. pseudotuberculosis and Y. enterocolitica have different reservoirs.
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