Cellular responses in the skin of merino sheep to repeated inoculation with Dermatophilus congolensis

The cellular response in the skin of Merino sheep was examined after three successive inoculations with Dermatophilus congolensis. There was a massive neutrophil influx into the infected epidermis and underlying dermis at 4-10 days after the first inoculation. A lymphocyte-macrophage response occurred at 10-12 days, followed by a plasma cell response at 14-38 days. Resolution of skin lesions after the first inoculation corresponded to the time when the plasma cell response in the skin was most intense. A second inoculation with D. congolensis, 70 days after the first, failed to produce skin lesions typical of dermatophilosis. Typical lesions of dermatophilosis did develop after a third inoculation of the same sheep 140 days after the first inoculation, but the lesions resolved in most sheep within 13 days. Dermatophilosis did not develop in some of these sheep at sites inoculated with 100-1000-fold lower infective doses of D. congolensis, whereas control sheep did develop lesions.