Yersinia pestis is the causative agent of plague, an enzootic vectorborne disease usually infecting rodents (rats) and fleas. Humans can become infected after being bitten by fleas that have fed on infected rodents. In humans, the disease usually occurs in the form of bubonic plague. In rare cases, the infection spreads to the lungs via the bloodstream and causes secondary pneumonic plague. Per...

Swine pasteurellosis was observed in descript as well as non-descript pigs of Chhattisgarh, India. Affected animals exhibited pyrexia, dullness, staggering gait, anorexia, serous nasal discharge and dyspnoea. Case fatality rate was 95% in adult animals and 100% in piglets. Typical lesions of oedematous swellings noted in the pharyngeal region, these swellings spread to the ventral cervical regi...

Pasteurella multocida subsp. multocida is a commensal and opportunistic pathogen of food animals, wildlife, and pets and a zoonotic cause of human infection arising from contacts with these animals. Here, an investigation of multiple serotype A strains demonstrated the occurrence of membrane sialyltransferase. Although P. multocida lacks the genes for the two earliest steps in de novo sialic ac...

were immediately put into broth and agar tubes for culture. In ten cases the blood was taken from the heart under perfectly aseptic conditions within half to one hour after death. The number of cases whose blood was taken for culture amounted to 90. The cases were clinically divided under two heads : (1) Mild cases in whom no pneumonic symptoms were present, and (2) cases in whom pneumonic symp...

Plague has received much attention because it may be used as a weapon by terrorists. Intentionally released aerosols of Yersinia pestis would cause pneumonic plague. In order to prepare for such an event, it is important, particularly for medical personnel and first responders, to form a realistic idea of the risk of person-to-person spread of infection. Historical accounts and contemporary exp...

A total of 30 Pasteurella multocida strains isolated from 333 pneumonic and apparently health slaughter cattle were examined for capsule biosynthesis genes and 23 virulence-associated genes by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The disc diffusion technique was used to determine antimicrobial resistance profiles among the isolates. Of the isolates, 23 belonged to capsular type A, 5 to capsular typ...

BACKGROUND No efficient vaccine against plague is currently available. We previously showed that a genetically attenuated Yersinia pseudotuberculosis producing the Yersinia pestis F1 antigen was an efficient live oral vaccine against pneumonic plague. This candidate vaccine however failed to confer full protection against bubonic plague and did not produce F1 stably. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FIN...