Isolation and antibiotic susceptibilities of Yersinia enterocolitica strains from horses slaughtered in Northern Italy

Yersinia enterocolitica is a psychotropic zoonotic pathogen which causes acute gastroenteritis and occasionally more serious disease in humans. Pigs are assumed to be the main reservoir of pathogenic Y. enterocolitica because pig is so far the only animal species from which pathogenic strains have frequently been isolated. Several domestic animals like dogs, cats, cows, sheep, and horses and several wild animals like rodents (mainly mice), monkeys, deer, and foxes have also been incriminated as potential reservoirs. The aim of this study was to investigate the distribution of different biotypes of Yersinia species in horse population and to evaluate the antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of the Y. enterocolitica isolates.