The aim of this study was to test the cold survival and pathogenicity of Yersinia enterocolitica BT4 strains isolated from pigs and genetically close or not to strains isolated from human cases, to assess their ability to pass through the food chain alive and infect humans. BT4 strains (n=50) of porcine origin (Anses and IFIP’s collections) and BT4 strains of human cases (n=50, CNR's collection) isolated in 2010 in France were sequenced. cgMLST, based on 1727 genes, was used to compare strains. Porcine strains and human strains in clusters were considered to be genetically closely related. Four porcine strains were selected: two closely related to human strains (P+H+), and two not (allelic difference > 9) (P+H-). The survival of these strains at 4°C was tested in BHI culture medium (5 Log10CFU/ml) and on ham (4.5 Log10CFU/cm2 ) for 10-11 days. Their pathogenicity was assessed using in vitro assays on human intestinal Caco-2 cells (105 cells/ml of Caco-2 cells for 107 bacteria/ml). During the survival test at 4°C, an increase of 4 Log10CFU/ml in BHI and of 1.5-2.0 Log10 CFU/cm2 on ham was observed for all strains. The P+H+ and P+H- strains did not differ significantly for the tests in BHI or on ham (P-value > 0.05). Adhesion and invasion on Caco-2 cells ranged from 65-90 % and 0.55-3.60 %, respectively. The P+H+ and P+H- strains did not differ significantly in pathogenicity. This study showed that the ability to survive and grow in cold conditions is not restricted to strains capable of infecting humans and that these strains had the same capacity to infect humans.