Yersinia enterocolitica: Its importance in Nigeria's health management

Abstract

Studies carried out on nine strains of Yersinia enterocolitica isolated out of 1700 diarrhoeic cases from the former Anambra and Imo States of Nigeria showed that none of them was enteropathogenic by any of the known methods of determining enteropathogenicity. The nine isolates were sero‐untypable, highly resistant to the antibiotics used and haemolytic. Plasmid studies on a highly resistant strain Y4, showed that it contained no plasmids and did not transfer antibiotic resistance to a strain of Escherichia coli K‐12. The nine strains were isolated by the cold enrichment technique. This procedure is too tedious for the technician, too slow for the clinician, and at the same time favours the isolation of nonpathogenic strains. In view of the low isolation rate (0.5%) in this study and some other studies on Y. enterocolitica in Nigeria, coupled with the non‐pathogenicity of the isolates; we suggest that Y. enterocolitica does not pose a health threat to Nigerians and that routine culture of stools for Y. en...