SCREENING A NEW-WORLD MONKEY COLONY FOR YERSINIA AND INVESTIGATIONS OF Y-PSEUDOTUBERCULOSIS AND SOIL

Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, an enteric pathogen, has been the cause o f several outbreaks of yersiniosis in the New World monkey colony at J ersey Wildlife preservation Trust since 1980. Screening for the presen ce of the bacteria in faeces and soil of enclosures that housed the wo rst affected species was undertaken over an eight week period in April and May 1995. To test whether soil can maintain Yersinia, and thereby be a possible site of infection, soil samples were experimentally ino culated with a pure strain of I: pseudotuberculosis and stored at four different temperatures (-8 degrees C, 4 degrees C, 22 degrees C, 30 d egrees C). Yersinia was not recovered from the faeces and enclosure so il nor from the experimental soil inoculation. Some possible explanati ons are given.