During the last years the knowledge of the ecology
of Yersinia enterocolitica has become more and more
documented. These bacteria have been isolated from
a variety of foods including raw milk in different
countries: in Canada (Schiemann, 1978), in Australia
(Hughes, 1979), (in Denmark (Christensen, 1980), in
Finnland (Hanninen and Raevouri, 1981), in Sweden
(Norberg, 1981), in France (Vidon and Delmas, 1981),
in Czechoslovakia (Swaminathan et al., 1982) and the
USA (Shayegani et al., 1979 and Moustafa et al., 1983)
but in Federal Republic of Germany Y. intermedia and
kristensenil could be isolated from raw milk
(Stengel, 1984). In other respects, this organism is
able to multiply at normal refrigeration temperature
(Stern et al.;, 1980) and the pathogenic role of this
bacterium in human beings 4s a causative agents of
acute gastroenteritis; terminal ileitis, mesenteric
lymphadenitis septicemia; meningitis, skin and eye
infections has been well established (Winblad, 1973
and Bottone, 1977). On the other hand, some outbreaks
of foodborne infection caused by Y. enterocolitica
were reported by Asakawa, et al. (1973); Black, et
(1978) and Centres for disease control (1983).