Occurrence of Yersinia enterocolitica in Pork Products from Northern Taiwan

Yersinia enterocolitica distributes ubiquitously in the environment and the gastroenterial tracts of various warm-blooded animals. It has been recovered from human, mammals, water and foodstuff [1-3]. The psychrotrophic Y. enterocolitica can •grow and multiply even at 5℃. The organism appears to be tolerant to relatively alkaline conditions. Based on this trait, a combination of cold enrichmenf and alkaline treatment method has been applied to isolate Y. enterocolitica from clinical and food samples [1, 2]. Although Y. enterocolitica exists everywhere in nature, not all strains of Y enterocolitica can cause disease. Strains with Nilehn's biotypes 2, 3, 4 or serotypes O:3, O:5, O:8, and O:9 have demonstrated virulent factors associated with pathogenicity. Pork and related products have definitely been regarded as the main vehicles of pathogenicity to human beings. Food-borne yersiniosis outbreaks in, humans have been reported in Japan, Canada, and the USA [1-3, 6, 7]. In this study, the authors isolated Y. enterocolitica from pork and related products from northern Taiwan and characterized the isolates in terms of their biotypes, serotypes and some conventional virulence tests to differentiate pathogenic and nonpathogenic strains.