Cat-contaminated environmental substances lead to Yersinia pseudotuberculosis infection in children.

A 1-year-old boy was infected with Yersinia pseudotuberculosis serotypes 1b and 3, and his 3-year-old brother was infected with Y. pseudotuberculosis serotype 1b; both had drunk water from puddles in a garden of their housing district of Miyoshi City, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The Y. pseudotuberculosis serotype 1b and 3 strains isolated from soil from the dried-up puddles and sand and feces from the sandbox proved to be from a stray cat. The restriction endonuclease patterns of the plasmid in each strain of Y. pseudotuberculosis serotypes 1b and 3 were identical. These data provide evidence for the transmission of Y. pseudotuberculosis through water, sand, and soil contaminated by feces from cats infected with this species.