Yersinia pestis

fr:Yersinia pestis de:Yersinia pestis

Yersinia pestis is a species of gram-negative coccobacillus (i.e. rod-shaped bacterium) in the family Enterobacteriaceae, genus Yersinia; it is the infectious agent of bubonic plague. This organism can also cause pneumonic plague and septicemic plague. It was discovered by Alexandre Yersin in 1894, who was a student of the "Pasteur school". Shibasaburo Kitasato was another biologist, from the "Koch school" engaged in finding the causitive agent of plague. However, it was Yersin who actually linked plague with Yersinia pestis.

The bacillus was originally called Pasteurella pestis, and was renamed after Alexandre Yersin.

see also Great Plague