ABSTRACT
One important tool to study immune defense against pathogens in vivo is the availability of appropriate animal models. Because Yersinia enterocolitica, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, and Yersinia pestis are pathogenic for man as well as for rodents, there are considerable data available on host responses against Yersinia spp., particularly Y. enterocolitica and Y. pseudotuberculosis, from both clinical studies in humans and from experimental animal infection models. Most features of yersiniosis, such as enteritis, lymphadenopathy and reactive arthritis can be reproduced in various experimental animal model systems including mice, rats and rabbits (Heesemann et al., 1993). Therefore, it is conceivable that the features observed in these animal models are relevant to the pathogenesis of human yersiniosis, while keeping in mind that one cannot simply extrapolate data from animal models to human yersiniosis.
