A note on Yersinia enterocolitica in a swine farm watershed.
Swine faeces from three pig farms in the La Crosse River watershed near La Crosse, Wisconsin, were sampled for Yersinia enterocolitica; 19 presumptive isolates were recovered and biochemically confirmed as Y. enterocolitica. Simultaneously, during a 2.2 cm rainfall, the confluences of runoff water flowing from the swine holding pens and of nearby streams were also sampled; a single isolate was obtained from one holding pen runoff-stream confluence. Biochemical analysis showed that the water isolate was a biotype identical with that of a swine isolate from the adjacent farm. These results demonstrate one possible mechanism for the introduction of Y. enterocolitica into water supplies; faecal material from swine, a suspected natural reservoir of the bacterium, is transported via runoff water to streams.
D000818:Animals; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D012703:Serotyping; D013552:Swine / Q000382:microbiology*; D014871:Water Microbiology; D015008:Yersinia enterocolitica / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism