Pasteur Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, St. Petersburg, Russia
Up-to-date approaches to the identification of Y. enterocolitica pathogenic strains are reviewed. Y.enterocolitica are widespread in the environment and circulate among humans and animals, individual Y.enterocolitica strains being heterogeneous with respect to their pathogenicity. For this reason the control of the pathogenicity of Y.enterocolitica is necessary to form any opinion on their etiological importance. The presently existing methods for the differentiation of pathogenic and non-pathogenic Y.enterocolitica strains of different serovars may be tentatively divided into 4 groups: biological, genetic, phenotypic, immunological. The most reliable results can be obtained by using their combination. Among them, the obligatory methods to be used in practical laboratories are: the determination of calcium-dependent growth at 37°C and/or the agglutination test with a diagnostic serum obtained by immunization of rabbits with Y.enterocolitica carrying the calcium dependence (45—47 MD) plasmid, followed by the stage of adsorption with the suspension of isogenic bacteria lacking this plasmid.
Zh. Mikrobiol. (Moscow), 2003, No. 6, P. 80—86