Yersinia enterocolitica is a bacteria that is know to cause diarrohea. A recent sutdy which looked at bacteria causing diarrhoea in the community produced unexpected findings. The numbers of stool samples positive for the bacteria Y. enterocolitica in community cases of diarrhoea in a region in the West of Ireland were unexpectedly high. Historically this is a bacteria that was very seldomly seen in cases of diarrhoea in this region and almost always associated with foreign travel. For example, over a 3 consecutive year period there were no stool samples from the community positive for this bacteria and now community referred stools from cases of diarrhoea are only tested for Y.enterocolitica if there are risk factors such as recent foreign travel.
Our research involves culturing (trying to grow bacteria on a dish) every diarrhoeal sample received from community practices in this region over a continuous six week period on a special culture agar that looks specifically for Y enterocolitica. Then the same samples will be tested using a second laboratory method, molecular analysis (looking for parts of the DNA of the bacteria), to see if they test positive for the bacteria in this way. We will compare the results to see if one method is better than the other for finding Y.enterocolitica in stool samples. We will find out if Y.enterocolitica is now more common as a cause of diarrhoea in this region than it was previously and if new laboratory ways of finding it are better than old.
