A total of 746 pigs slaughtered at the Jos abattoir had tongue, throat and tonsillar swabs cultured for Yersinia enterocolitica following enrichment in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) at 4 °C. Four (0·53%) strains of Y. enterocolitica were isolated, two from tongue, one each from throat and tonsillar swabs. The four strains were serotype 0:5, biotype 1 and phage type X Z. They were all negative for calcium dependency at 37 °C, autoagglutination at 37 °C, invasiveness in guinea-pig eye (Sereny) and heat-stable (ST) enterotoxin production. Gentamicin was the most effective amongst the 11 antimicrobial agents tested against the isolates while all were resistant to clindamycin, lincomycin and erythromycin by the agar dilution method. Of the 191 serum samples screened for antibodies against serotypes 0:3, 0:5, 0:5,27, 0:9 and 0:12,26, 111(58·1%) were seropositive. The highest seropositivity rate was against serotype 0:12,26 (20·4%) and the least, 0:5 (12·0%). Although the cultural study demonstrated a low prevalence of infection, the rather high prevalence of antibodies suggests a widespread Y. enterocolitica infection in slaughter pigs in Jos and may be a human health risk.