A Serological Survey of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis Infection (1999―2016)

Abstract

A serological assay was conducted to investigate Yersinia pseudotuberculosis infections. The assay was based on agglutination against whole cell antigens of Y. pseudotuberculosis serogroups 1 to 6. Samples with a titer at dilution of ≧1：160 were diagnosed as positive. A total of 1,308 serum samples was examined from 654 subjects most of whom were pediatric patients. Ninety-eight subjects (15.0%) were seropositive for single O-antigen. The serogroup O：5 was the largest serogroup including 42 subjects (42.9%). From among 22 subjects whose stool or blood samples or whose associated environmental water samples were culture positive for Y. pseudotuberculosis, 18 (81.8%) were seropositive against the corresponding serogroups to the respective isolates. The positive rate of serum samples was higher in the suspected Y. pseudotuberculosis infection group (18.5%) than in the suspected Kawasaki disease group (10.9%) (p＜0.01). The frequencies of diarrhea, erythema nodosum, abdominal pain, renal failure, onset in the family and use of natural water sources were significantly higher in the seropositive than in the seronegative group (p＜0.005).