Yersinia enterocolitica remains an underestimated foodborne zoonotic pathogen with a complex biology that links animal reservoirs, contaminated foods, environmental persistence, intestinal invasion, immune evasion, and post-infectious complications. Although most infections are self-limiting, severe disease may occur in children, elderly individuals, immunocompromised patients, and cases associated with septicemia, transfusion-transmitted infection, or invasive extraintestinal spread. The pathogen is distinguished by marked heterogeneity among biotypes, serotypes, virulence plasmid profiles, chromosomal pathogenicity determinants, and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns. Recent genomic surveillance has improved the resolution of outbreak detection, source tracing, and lineage characterization, while molecular diagnostics have reduced the delay associated with culture-based methods. However, underdiagnosis remains a major limitation, especially in regions where yersiniosis is not routinely monitored. The increasing detection of multidrug-resistant isolates from food, animals, and environmental sources has renewed interest in preventive strategies beyond conventional antimicrobial therapy. Bacterial ghosts represent a promising vaccine and delivery platform because they preserve native bacterial surface antigens and pathogen-associated molecular patterns while lacking viable genetic and cytoplasmic contents. This review integrates recent evidence on Y. enterocolitica epidemiology, virulence, diagnosis, genomics, resistance, and bacterial ghost technology, and proposes a conceptual framework for developing mucosal bacterial ghost vaccines against enteric yersiniosis.
Neamah et al. (Fri,) studied this question.