Category Archives: Yersinia pseudotuberculosis

Research – Yersinia enterocolitica biovar 1A: An underappreciated potential pathogen in the food chain.

Science Direct

Highlights
Y. enterocolitica was isolated from chicken (74%), pork (80%), salmon (80%) and leafy green (10%) samples

Up to five Y. enterocolitica sequence types (STs) were isolated from the same food sample

Isolates from the same sample and ST differed by 0-74 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)

Almost all (99%) food Y. enterocolitica isolates were biotype 1A

Around half (51%) of food samples contained an ST previously isolated from UK human sources.

Abstract

Yersinia enterocolitica is an underreported cause of foodborne gastroenteritis. Little is known of the diversity of Y. enterocolitica isolated from food and which food commodities contribute to human disease. In this study, Y. enterocolitica was isolated from 37/50 raw chicken, 8/10 pork, 8/10 salmon and 1/10 leafy green samples collected at retail in the UK. Up to 10 presumptive Y. enterocolitica isolates per positive sample underwent whole genome sequencing (WGS) and were compared with publicly available genomes. In total, 207 Y. enterocolitica isolates were analyzed and belonged to 38 sequence types (STs). Up to five STs of Y. enterocolitica were isolated from individual food samples and isolates belonging to the same sample and ST differed by 0–74 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Biotype was predicted for 205 (99 %) genomes that all belonged to biotype 1A, previously described as non-pathogenic. However, around half (51 %) of food samples contained isolates belonging to the same ST as previously isolated from UK human cases. The closest human-derived isolates shared between 17 and 7978 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with the food isolates. Extensive food surveillance is required to determine what food sources are responsible for Y. enterocolitica infections and to re-examine the role of biotype 1A as a human pathogen.

Research – Most major pathogens see an increase in Ireland

Food Safety News

The number of E. coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Listeria infections has gone up in Ireland, according to 2022 data from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC).

During the COVID-19 pandemic, reporting rates for giardiasis, listeriosis, norovirus, rotavirus, salmonellosis, shigellosis, and toxoplasmosis in Ireland decreased compared to pre-pandemic levels. Still, rates for campylobacteriosis, cryptosporidiosis, E. coli, and yersiniosis increased or remained unchanged. In 2022, most of these diseases returned to or remained at pre-pandemic levels.

A 2021 cyber-attack at the Health Service Executive (HSE) also affected data validation and collection, reporting of enhanced data variables, and outbreak notification.

Research – Yersiniosis – Annual Epidemiological Report for 2021

ECDC

For 2021, 6 876 confirmed cases of yersiniosis (caused by Yersinia enterocolitica and Y. pseudotuberculosis) were reported by 28 EU/EEA countries with an overall rate of 1.9 cases per 100 000 population. This represented an increase of 11.8% on 2020 and the pre-pandemic period (2017−2019). As in previous years, Germany accounted for the highest number of cases, followed by France. These two countries accounted for 49% of all confirmed yersiniosis cases in the EU/EEA. Denmark had the highest notification rate of 7.8 cases per 100 000 population, followed by Finland, Lithuania and Czechia (Table 1, Figure 1).
Thirty-three percent of 1 649 yersiniosis cases with known information were hospitalised. No deaths were reported among the 3 659 cases with known outcome.

Click to access AER%20yersiniosis%20-%202021.pdf

Research – First Description of a Yersinia pseudotuberculosis Clonal Outbreak in France, Confirmed Using a New Core Genome Multilocus Sequence Typing Method

Sante Publique

Yersinia pseudotuberculosis is an enteric pathogen causing mild enteritis that can lead to mesenteric adenitis in children and septicemia in elderly patients. Most cases are sporadic, but outbreaks have already been described in different countries. We report for the first time a Y. pseudotuberculosis clonal outbreak in France, that occurred in 2020. An epidemiological investigation based on food queries pointed toward the consumption of tomatoes as the suspected source of infection. The Yersinia National Reference Laboratory (YNRL) developed a new cgMLST scheme with 1,921 genes specific to Y. pseudotuberculosis that identified the clustering of isolates associated with the outbreak and allowed to perform molecular typing in real time. In addition, this method allowed to retrospectively identify isolates belonging to this cluster from earlier in 2020. This method, which does not require specific bioinformatic skills, is now used systematically at the YNRL and proves to display an excellent discriminatory power and is available to the scientific community. IMPORTANCE We describe in here a novel core-genome MLST method that allowed to identify in real time, and for the first time in France, a Y. pseudotuberculosis clonal outbreak that took place during the summer 2020 in Corsica. Our method allows to support epidemiological and microbiological investigations to establish a link between patients infected with closely associated Y. pseudotuberculosis isolates, and to identify the potential source of infection. In addition, we made this method available for the scientific community.

Auteur : Savin Cyril, Le Guern Anne-Sophie, Chereau Fanny, Guglielmini Julien, Heuzé Guillaume, Demeure Christian, Pizarro-Cerdá Javier
Microbiology spectrum, 2022, p. e0114522