Category Research project
  • Mikrobiologie

Strengthening the New Zealand combat against Yersiniosis

Project status
Completed
Project start
Nov 2021
Project end
Oct 2024
Acronym
Catalyst
Department
Biologische Sicherheit

Description and Objective

Yersinosis is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Yersinia. Rates of yersiniosis in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) are increasing and are high compared to other developed countries. The challenge, however, continues to be the detection and isolation of Yersinia from foods and this limits the ability to identify food sources accurately. It is proposed that NZ and German scientists collaborate and share expertise, knowledge and data in order to improve these methods in order to help with epidemiological studies. This will firstly involve combining genomic data of various Yersinia from NZ and Germany (and other countries) and analyze the data to identify key genetic markers that can distinguish between pathogenic and non-pathogenic strains. This is particularly applicable to strains belonging to Biotype 1A which are often thought of as non-pathogenic but has increasingly been observed in clinical cases in NZ and current methods cannot detect this group. Combining these markers with other method improvements such as phage-technologies being developed by the German partners will also be assessed for applications in NZ. If successful, then further developments and opportunities will be explored in complementary areas such as yersiniosis in animals which causes a significant burden for NZ primary production industries and zoos.

Result

This cooperation project focussed mainly on the cultural and molecular detection and the importance of Y. enterocolitica (particularly biotype 1A strains), which are significant agents in New Zeeland. The cultural detection of the bacteria in meat could be optimized by improvement of the CEN ISO 10273:2017 method. With respect to the molecular detection, we developed a novel multiplex PCR allowing the reliable detection of all Y. enterocolitica biotypes (manuscript is under revision). In total, approximately 300 biotype 1A isolates from food, the environment and from clinical cases were sequenced and compared. The sequence data shall be put in relation to phenotypic studies (determination of serum resistance, invasiveness in cell lines, C. elegans killing) on the virulence of the bacteria, which are currently carried out in our laboratories. Besides this, the project contained two stays as guest scientist in New Zeeland including  participation in conferences and presentation of our results.
Type of project

Third-party funded project

Areas of research

Gesundheit von Mensch, Tier und Umwelt (One Health) / Internationale Zusammenarbeit

Organisational units and partners

Lead unit: Diagnostik, Erregercharakterisierung, Parasiten in Lebensmitteln (45)
Contact persons: Dr. Stefan Hertwig
External partner: Institut für Umweltwissenschaften und Forschung, Christchurch, Neuseeland

Funding body and grant number

The Royal Society of New Zealand
JVH-ESR2001

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