VIOLIN: Vaccine Investigation and Online Information Network

Pathogen Page

Bordetella bronchiseptica

I. General Information

1. NCBI Taxonomy ID:

2. Disease:

Infectious bronchitis, kennel cough

3. Introduction

B. bronchiseptica displays a broad host range which includes mice, rats, guinea pigs, rabbits, cats, dogs, pigs, sheep, horses, and bears. Although human infections have been documented, they are usually associated with a severely compromised host. B. bronchiseptica causes a variety of respiratory diseases such as kennel cough in dogs, atrophic rhinitis in pigs and snuffles in rabbits. Infections established by this subspecies are typically chronic, often asymptomatic, and notoriously difficult to clear even with antibiotic therapy. B. bronchiseptica appears to occupy a position along a continuum with "pathogen" at one end and "commensal" at the other. Its ability to establish long-term asymptomatic infection seems to be an adaptive feature and may represent a balance between immunostimulatory events associated with infection and immunomodulatory events mediated by the bacteria. B. bronchiseptica infection of laboratory animals provides an excellent model system to understand mechanisms that promote persistent bacterial infections (Mattoo et al., 2001).

4. Host Ranges and Animal Models

B. bronchiseptica displays a broad host range which includes mice, rats, guinea pigs, rabbits, cats, dogs, pigs, sheep, horses, and bears. Although human infections have been documented, they are usually associated with a severely compromised host. Animal models for B. bronchiseptica have been developed that reflect both the natural course of infection as well as those that are specifically skewed toward disease. A B. bronchiseptica strain, RB50, has been isolated from the nose of a naturally infected New Zealand White rabbit. Specific pathogen free rabbits inoculated with RB50 become colonized in the nasal cavity, larynx, trachea and lungs. Rat and mouse models have also been developed (Mattoo et al., 2001). B. bronchiseptica has been isolated from dogs, humans, monkeys, cats, rabbits, ferrets, guinea pigs, mice,swine, foxes, rats, hedgehogs, horses, skunks, opossums, raccoons, koala bears, turkeys, and lesser bushbabies (Goodnow, 1980).

5. Host Protective Immunity

Prevention of B. bronchiseptica respiratory tract (lung, tracheal, or nasal turbinate) membrane infections of mammals appears to be dependent upon prevention of attachment to and colonization of host cells by invading bacteria. As there have been few reports of septicemicphase infections, the inhibition of these infections appears to be dependent upon localized activity of humoral agglutinins, antitoxins, or cellular immune factors (Goodnow, 1980).

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