Bordetella avium causes bordetellosis, an upper respiratory disease of birds. Commercially raised turkeys are particularly susceptible. We report here on the use of a recently described B. avium bacteriophage, Ba1, as a tool for investigating the effects of lysogeny and phage resistance on virulence. We found that lysogeny had no effect on any of the in vivo or in vitro measurements of virulenc...

Viability of Bordetella pertussis was preserved when glycerol broth suspensions were quick frozen and stored at -70 C for as long as 45 months.

The role of Bordetella bronchiseptica sialic acid-binding hemagglutinin (SBHA) in bacterial colonization was studied by testing the ability of a phase-I strain carrying SBHA and its spontaneous mutants deficient in SBHA to colonize mouse tracheae. The mutants exhibited a remarkable reduction in colonizing ability, approximately 1,000-fold, when compared with that of the parent strain, suggestin...

Glucose-nonfermenting gram-negative bacilli (NFB) have been recognized recently as opportunistic pathogens of humans. With few exceptions, strains of NFB have not been considered important enough to be identified when isolated from animals. In this study, all NFB isolated during a 1-year period in a clinical veterinary microbiology laboratory were identified to determine their prevalence. Of th...

A total of 113 Bordetella bronchiseptica strains, isolated from 11 different host species worldwide, were characterized by ribotyping with restriction enzyme PvuII. Sixteen distinct ribotypes were identified, and each ribotype contained five to seven restriction fragments ranging in size from 1.8 to 5.6 kb. Approximately 88% of the swine isoaltes were identified as ribotype 3 strains. Isolates ...

The BvgAS two-component system positively regulates the expression of the virulence genes of Bordetella pertussis and negatively regulates a second set of genes whose function is unknown. The BvgAS-mediated regulation of the bvg-repressed genes is accomplished through the activation of expression of the negative regulator, BvgR. A second two-component regulatory system, RisAS, is required for e...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Due to contagiousness of pertussis, a rapid and sensitive method for diagnosis is required to initiate the treatment and interrupt its transmission. MATERIALS AND METHODS To detect B. pertussis strains, we used two real-time PCR targeting IS481 and BP283 sequences and compared factors influencing culture and real-time PCR results. RESULTS Totally, 779 specimens were...

While pathogens are often assumed to limit the growth of wildlife populations, experimental evidence for their effects is rare. A lack of food resources has been suggested to enhance the negative effects of pathogen infection on host populations, but this theory has received little investigation. We conducted a replicated two-factor enclosure experiment, with introduction of the bacterium Borde...