| Summary: | <i>Yersinia entercolitica</i> is a bacterial species within the genus <i>Yersinia</i>, mostly known as a human enteric pathogen, but also recognized as a zoonotic agent widespread in domestic pigs. Findings of this bacterium in wild animals are very limited. The current report presents results of the identification of cultures of <i>Y. entercolitica</i> from dead bats after a massive bat die-off in a cave in western Georgia. The growth of bacterial colonies morphologically suspected as <i>Yersinia</i> was observed from three intestine tissues of 11 bats belonging to the <i>Miniopterus schreibersii</i> species. These three isolates were identified as <i>Y. enterocolitica</i> based on the API29 assay. No growth of <i>Brucella</i> or <i>Francisella</i> bacteria was observed from tissues of dead bats. Full genomes (a size between 4.6–4.7 Mbp) of the <i>Yersinia</i> strains isolated from bats were analyzed. The phylogenetic sequence analyses of the genomes demonstrated that all strains were nearly identical and formed a distinct cluster with the closest similarity to the environmental isolate O:36/1A. The bat isolates represent low-pathogenicity Biotype 1A strains lacking the genes for the Ail, Yst-a, Ysa, and virulence plasmid pYV, while containing the genes for Inv, YstB, and MyfA. Further characterization of the novel strains cultured from bats can provide a clue for the determination of the pathogenic properties of those strains.
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