Yersinia pestis

Origin and Routes of Dissemination Towards the end of the 1330s, a coccobacillus called Yersinia Pestis, which slumbered for centuries in the blood of rats underwent a deadly exodus. The rats were immune to the bacteria in their bloodstream, but not the fleas that fed on their blood. A toxin produced by Yersinia Pestis blocked the abdomen of the flea thus inhibiting it from swallowing the blood it sucked out of the rat. Then, when a flea bit a human, it would deposit the blood from the rat infected with the bacteria into the human’s blood stream. The first victim or patient zero of the plague was thus infected. In 1347, the fast-expanding Mongolian empire sought the acquisition of the strategic town of Caffa, which was a…

civilization has been under the threat of extinction. One such time, arguably the most infamous, was when the Black Death ravaged the western hemisphere. For several hundred years, the cause of this devastating disease remained a mystery, however, recent analysis from the DNA of the victims of the plague indicate that Yersinia pestis a bacillus shaped bacterium, was the likely cause of this tragedy (Perry and Fetherston, 1997). The road leading up to Y. pestis becoming God’s bacterial agent of…

Yersinia pestis One of the five bacterium I identified was Yersinia pestis. It is a gram negative rod and these are the tests that identified it (and the results of those tests): gram morphology (g-rod), oxidase (negative), lactose fermentation (negative), indole (negative), urease (negative), motility (negative), orthine dicarboxylase (negative). These tests were chosen as directed by my flow chart. Discovery During a plague epidemic in Hong Kong in 1894, Yersinia pestis was discovered by…

This virus is a gram negative rod shaped bacteria classified as coccobacillus. A coccobacillus has short rods that may be confused for a cocci shape. Y. Pestis is a nonmotile, nonsporulating, facultative anaerobe. The bacteria settles in the midgut of a flea and its plasmid is phospholipase D lined membrane allows the bacteria to survive among the digestive and intestinal juices. When the bacteria reproduces in the gut it forms a mass in the stomach going up into the esophagus, essentially…

The Bubonic Plague is a bacteria known as Yersinia Pestis that infects the lymphatic system causing it to become inflamed (Tonsils, Adenoids, Spleen, and Thymus). The bacteria needs calcium to grow but when there is no calcium it produces amino acids called aspartic acid. Aspartic acid raises the blood plasma level of aspartate and glutamate. This excess can lead to damage of sensitive neurons. It can also help generate cellular energy, balance neurochemistry, and help the liver rid the body of…

Septicemic plagues, and they were all caused by the same germ, Yersinia Pestis. Yersinia Pestis, once called Pasteurella pestis1, "is a Gram-negative, rod-shaped coccobacillus, a facultative anaerobic organism"1. A Gram negative baterium can't be stained by crystal violet stain. This kind of bacterium has an extra, outer layer, that is made of proteins, that keeps the stain out9. Rod shaped…

The plague epidemics of the 6th, 14th, and 17th century are commonly known as Justinian’s Plague, the Black Death, and the Plague of 1665, respectively. Yersinia pestis was the major source of the plague in all three epidemics. Modern DNA analysis studies showed that Y. pestis has a strong correlation with victims of the Black Death in the 14th century. However, although these modern studies show biologically that Yersinia pestis was the cause of the Black Death, many scientists are skeptical…

There are plagues that can occur today, they go under the name of pneumonic, septicemic and bubonic. Pneumonic plague is contagious and spreads person to person, although the last time a person a caught the plague by another human was in 1924. The main area that is affected with this plague is the lungs. It is caused when the bacterium, yersinia pestis spreads around the lungs. The symptoms include; coughing, pains within your chest, having a fever, vomiting, nausea, feeling cold (chills),…

Cheopis), which ingests Yersinia pestis cells by sucking blood from an infected animal. Yersinia pestis is a bacterium that infects rodents, humans and the oriental rat flea. It can be life threatening if untreated. The black death is a contagious disease that can spread very fast. Cells multiply in the flea’s intestine and can be transmitted to a healthy animal in the next bite. As the disease spreads, rat mortality becomes so high that the infected fleas seek new hosts, including humans. Also,…

Bubonic plague, a deadly disease that is transported to humans through fleas, has been a worldwide issue from as far back as the year 1347 A.D. This disease has caused more than 200 million deaths since its first rampage in Europe. The bacteria Yersinia pestis has been researched to be the main cause of bubonic plague, but at one time there were many speculations as to the cause of this plague. Inspired by S. Scott and C. Duncan’s “Biology of plagues” and “Return of the Black Death”, George…