February 17, 2017
Bulletin interne de l'Institut Pasteur
Hypermutative enterobacteria isolated for the first time in Côte d'Ivoire
On the African continent, diarrheal diseases are very frequent but their etiology is often unknown which does not allow an optimal care of the patients.
Yersinia enterocolitica is a bacterium responsible for gastroenteritis whose natural reservoir is the pig. Well known in Europe, where it is the 3rd cause of bacterial diarrhea, it is, on the other hand, poorly diagnosed in Africa because of the frequency of other infections such as cholera and the difficulty to isolate it.
In order to determine whether this bacteria circulates and whether it was responsible for human gastroenteritis, a study was conducted between June 2012 and December 2013 in 41 pig farms around Abidjan by a team of researchers from the Institut Pasteur in Côte d'Ivoire.