Yersinia pestis is a Bactérie Yersinia . It is responsible for the Peste.

She was discovered in 1894 by Alexandre Yersin, a Bactériologiste free - Suisse working for the Pasteur Institute, lasting an epidemic of plague to HongKong. In the beginning, it was called Pasteurella pestis . It is only later that it took its current name, in homage to Yersin.

Yersinia pestis was identified formally in a mass grave of plague of 1722 in Marseilles (France), historically confirming this bond which was not always obvious at one time when the term of “plague” was applied in a a little systematic way to several infectious illness.

The bacillus of Yersin exists in the wild rodents which represent the natural basin of the germ and at which can prevail the sylvan Peste. The principal intermediate vector is the Rat, animal very sensitive to the pesteux bacillus. The epizooty in the rats is propagated by their Ectoparasite S, primarily by the chips ( Xenopsylla cheopis ). The part played by the rats in the epidemiology of the plague explains the advance of the great epidemics of the history. These rodents being frequent in the port S, the starting point of an epidemic on a continent was almost invariably in a port city where the pesteux rats coming from a remote hearth were brought by the ships.

Sensitivity to the treatments