Pasteurella haemolytica in the Tracheal Air of Calves

Pasteurella haemolytica was shown to be present in the tracheal air of calves and was likely transported in droplet nuclei formed in the nasal passages. The number of colonies of P. haemolytica found in the tracheal air of the calves ranged from 1.9 to 12.5 colonies per cu ft of air. As long as P. haemolytica colonized the nasal passage in numbers detectable in nasal swabs it could be found in the tracheal air but there was no direct correlation between the numbers in the nasal flora and the numbers found in the tracheal air. Of the P. haemolytica which travel via the tracheal air 47.8% were in droplets of the aerodynamic size of from less than one to five microns, the size range which is considered hazardous for lung penetration in man.

The technique used demonstrated the presence of P. haemolytica in the tracheal air of calves and provides a useful tool for monitoring and determining the phase in the colonization of the respiratory tract in which the majority of the potential pathogen P. haemolytica pass from the nose to the tracheal air and presumably to the lung.

     

Pasteurella haemolytica A1 and Bovine Respiratory Disease: Pathogenesis

The severe fibrinonecrotic pneumonia associated with pneumonic pasteurellosis usually results from colonization of the lower respiratory tract by Pasteurella haemolytica biotype A, serotype 1(A1). Despite recent research efforts, the authors lack a detailed understanding of the interactions and host response to P. haemolytica in the respiratory tract. The authors hypothesize that management and environmental stress factors or viral infection alters the upper respiratory tract (URT) epithelium allowing P. haemolytica to colonize the epithelium. Once the URT is colonized, large numbers of organisms enter the lung where they interact with alveolar macrophages. Endotoxin, released from the bacteria, crosses the alveolar wall where it activates pulmonary intravascular macrophages, endothelium, neutrophils, lymphocytes, platelets, complement, and Hageman factor leading to complex interactions of cells and mediators. It is the progression of this inflammatory response with neutrophil influx that is ultimately responsible for the pulmonary injury. Leukotoxin is a major virulence factor of P. haemolytica that allows it to survive by destroying phagocytic cells. At subcytolytic concentrations it may also enhance the inflammatory response by activating cells to produce mediators and release reactive oxygen metabolites and proteases.     

Bovine herpesvirus-1 and Pasteurella haemolytica aerobiology in experimentally infected calves

Eight calves (2 calves in each of 4 groups) were exposed to an aerosol of bovine herpesvirus-1 (BHV-1) and 4 days later to an aerosol of Pasteurella haemolytica. Samples of tracheal and exhaled air were taken simultaneously beginning 1 day before viral exposure and once a day up to 3 to 4 days after the bacterial exposure. Samples were also taken during the period of aerosol exposure. Only 0.04% to 0.42% of P haemolytica-carrying droplets of the bacterial aerosol passed beyond the cranial part of the respiratory tract to the trachea. Nevertheless, numbers of bacteria as few as 1 bacterium/L of tracheal air were sufficient to produce fatal disease in the lungs of BHV-1-infected calves. In 1 of 4 groups, BHV-1 was isolated from most daily samples of exhaled and tracheal air. Pasteurella haemolytica was isolated 7 times more frequently from air when calves were kept at 1 C than when calves were kept at 23 C. The number of P haemolytica-carrying droplets in exhaled air was low (less than 1/L of air); however, samples obtained during the time that calves were coughing contained up to 10 P haemolytica-carrying droplets/L of air. It was learned that the cranial part of the respiratory tract serves as an efficient filter on inhalation and exhalation, but this filter is deficient in the animal when coughing occurs. This process expels infective droplets of size suitable for inhalation by other cattle in close proximity.     

Bovine serum and nasal secretion immunoglobulins against Pasteurella haemolytica serotype 1 antigens

Experimental intranasal inoculation of cattle with Pasteurella haemolytica serotype 1 resulted in a group that shed the bacteria in their nasal secretions (colonized) and a group that did not shed (uncolonized). After inoculation, antibody titers in serum and nasal secretions against the total P haemolytica increased significantly, and the proportions of total antibody against specific P haemolytica antigens changed so that the proportion directed against the 94- and 62-kD antigens increased. Prior to inoculation, the proportion of total antibody in the serum against 94- and 62-kD antigens of P haemolytica was higher in calves that remained uncolonized than in those that became colonized with P haemolytica after exposure. Antibody specificity of serum and nasal secretions differed in the relative amounts directed against each P haemolytica antigen. The specificity against P haemolytica antigens differed between IgG and IgA isotypes of serum and nasal secretions, with IgA being directed against fewer antigens than was IgG.     

Failure of a Subunit Bovine Herpesvirus 1 Vaccine to Protect Against Experimental Respiratory Disease in Calves

In two experiments in which 31 calves were used, a bovine herpesvirus 1 subunit vaccine previously shown to elicit a strong immunological response in adult cattle failed to do so in younger animals and failed to protect against pneumonia caused by sequential exposure to virulent bovine herpesvirus 1 and Pasteurella haemolytica aerosols. One of the experimental groups had been previously inoculated with a live commercial vaccine but even this failed to elicit a strong immunological response. These results indicate that the calves were in a refractory state when immunized and may explain why similar vaccine failures occur in the field.     

Bovine herpesvirus-1 vaccination against experimental bovine herpesvirus-1 and Pasteurella haemolytica respiratory tract infection: onset of protection

The onset of protection offered by intranasal vaccination with attenuated bovine herpesvirus-1 (BHV-1) was studied in 18 calves given a virulent BHV-1 aerosol challenge inoculum and an aerosol challenge exposure to Pasteurella haemolytica. Calves challenge exposed with virus 3, 7, 11, 15, or 19 days after vaccination and challenge exposed 4 days later with Pasteurella haemolytica did not develop viral-bacterial pneumonia, whereas 2 of 3 control calves died of fibrinous bronchopneumonia 40 and 60 hours after the bacterial aerosol and the 3rd control calf had similar lesions. All vaccinated and control calves had detectable amounts of interferon at the time of viral challenge exposure. Protection was observed before detection of neutralizing antibodies to BHV-1 in nasal secretions or in serum. Protection was therefore present from day 3 through day 19 after vaccination, but the mechanism could not be explained completely by neutralizing antibody or interferon.     

Incubation of Pasteurella haemolytica and Pasteurella multocida lipopolysaccharide with sheep lung surfactant

Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) were extracted from a serotype of each of 2 species of Pasteurella isolated from sheep with respiratory tract infections. Lipopolysaccharides from P haemolytica 82-25 (serotype 1A) or P multocida P-1573 (serotype 12) were mixed with sheep lung surfactant and were incubated for 6 hours at 37 C. After incubation, LPS-surfactant mixtures were centrifuged overnight in sucrose density gradients, and fractions were analyzed. Binding occurred between LPS and surfactant vesicles resulting in a stable complex with densities greater than those with the surfactant alone. The surfactant alone had a density of 1.052 to 1.060 g/ml. Diffuse bands of surfactant had a density of 1.075 to 1.092 when incubated with P haemolytica LPS and a density of 1.069 to 1.105 when incubated with P multocida LPS.     

Pasteurella haemolytica infections in sheep

Summary

Pasteurella haemolytica causes two distinct disease syndromes in sheep. P. haemolytica biotype A causes septicaemia in young lambs and pneumonia in all ages of sheep. Biotype T produces an acute systemic disease affecting principally the upper alimentary tract and lungs in young adult sheep. The bacteriology, epidemiology and clinical and necropsy findings of the two diseases are described and the current situation regarding their experimental reproduction and immunology is reviewed.     

Pasteurella haemolytica infections in sheep

Summary Pasteurella haemolytica causes two distinct disease syndromes in sheep. P. haemolytica biotype A causes septicaemia in young lambs and pneumonia in all ages of sheep. Biotype T produces an acute systemic disease affecting principally the upper alimentary tract and lungs in young adult sheep. The bacteriology, epidemiology and clinical and necropsy findings of the two diseases are described and the current situation regarding their experimental reproduction and immunology is reviewed.     

Infection of the Bovine Udder with Bovine Herpesvirus

Infectious bovine rhinotracheitis — infectious pustular vulvovaginitis (bovine herpesvirus) grown in tissue culture was used as inoculum in trials to infect the lactating bovine udder. Six experiments were undertaken in which one or more quarters were infused with 1 ml. of tissue culture fluids containing 10⁶ to 10⁷ tissue culture infectious doses (TCID) of virus. In four of the experiments the inoculated quarters showed marked evidence of infection in the form of acute inflammation, swelling, reduced milk secretion and profound changes in the physical appearance of the milk. In each case virus was recovered in high titres in the milk from about the second until the tenth to fifteenth days following exposure. Uninfected quarters remained normal in appearance and virus could not be recovered from the milk.

In three of the experiments it was shown that serum and milk antibodies appeared shortly after the disappearance of virus from the milk. One experiment involving two animals showed that about 1000 TCID of virus were required to produce infection. In one experiment a cow having a pre-inoculation serum titre for bovine herpesvirus proved resistant to infection.

The experiments indicate that the bovine udder is readily susceptible to bovine herpesvirus in non-immune animals, and that the virus produces an acute, limited infection leading to a temporary disfunction of the gland. It appears that natural invasion of the udder through the teat canal is not readily accomplished by the virus.

     

Pulmonary response to intratracheal challenge with Pasteurella haemolytica and Pasteurella multocida.

Calves were inoculated intratracheally with 5 X 10(7), 5 X 10(8), or 5 X 10(9) colony forming units of either 18-hour stationary phase cultures or 4-hour log phase cultures of Pasteurella haemolytica. The log phase culture at all concentrations produced more severe clinical signs, hematological changes and pulmonary lesions at postmortem examination than did the corresponding stationary phase culture. More severe effects were seen with the larger doses especially with the log phase culture. Fibrinous bronchopneumonia with focal or multifocal necrosis was consistently produced by both the stationary and log phase cultures. To determine if this lesion was peculiar to P. haemolytica or whether it could be produced generally by rapidly growing Gram negative organisms, a 4-hour log phase culture of Pasteurella multocida was prepared in an identical manner to that used for the culture of P. haemolytica and given to calves intratracheally at the high bacterial dose (5 X 10(9]. The P. haemolytica produced more severe clinical, hematological and morphological changes than did the P. multocida. The lesions observed with P. multocida differed morphologically from those of P. haemolytica; there was a suppurative exudative component and minimal to no necrosis with P. multocida. It appears that an important pathogenic principle is produced by the rapidly growing P. haemolytica that causes it to produce a more severe clinical disease and more necrotizing pulmonary lesions than P. multocida.     

犊牛呼吸道合胞体病毒和巴氏杆菌混合感染的调查研究

为了对疑似牛呼吸道合胞体病毒和巴氏杆菌混合感染的犊牛进行病原鉴定,本研究采用常规病毒经细菌分离鉴定和PCR方法分别进行分离与鉴定。结果表明,该病毒株能在BT细胞上增殖并产生特征性合胞体形态的细胞病变;无血凝性和血吸附特性;能被牛呼吸道合胞体病毒(bovine respiratory syncytial virus,BRSV)标准阳性血清中和;分离的病毒经RT-PCR鉴定为牛呼吸道合胞体病毒;根据菌落形态、细菌染色特性及生化特性,鉴定分离的细菌为巴氏杆菌。提示,该牛场为牛呼吸道合胞体病毒和巴氏杆菌混合感染。     

牛溶血性曼氏杆菌及牛荚膜A型多杀性巴氏杆菌灭活疫苗对小鼠的保护性研究

牛溶血性曼氏杆菌及牛荚膜A型多杀性巴氏杆菌是导致牛呼吸道疾病（bovine respiratory disease,BRD）的重要细菌性病原,每年给养牛业带来巨大的经济损失,目前对其疫苗研究仍显不足。本研究选用牛溶血性曼氏杆菌（Mannheimia haemolytica,Mh） Mh422株和牛荚膜A型多杀性巴氏杆菌（Pasteurella multocida,Pm） PmCQ2株作为疫苗菌株,分别制备了2种菌体浓度的Mh和Pm单价灭活菌苗及3种菌量配比（1∶1、2∶1和3∶1）的Mh-Pm二联灭活苗,以小鼠为模型,皮下多点免疫（0.2 mL）,加强免疫2次,免疫剂量均为首免的一半。首免后第7天及其后每隔5 d,小鼠尾静脉采血分离血清,ELISA方法检测抗体效价,三免后第20天,分别以Mh422或PmCQ2进行腹腔攻毒测定免疫保护效果。结果显示,所有小鼠接种疫苗均无不良反应,二免后第10天抗体达较高水平,三免后抗体水平持续升高,第15天到达高峰,其后25 d维持高水平,后缓慢下降。Mh单菌苗的2种免疫剂量对Mh422株攻毒的免疫保护率均为0,而Pm单菌苗的2种免疫剂量对PmCQ2株攻毒的免疫保护率全为100%;Mh和Pm间无交叉免疫保护作用;3种菌量配比的Mh-Pm二联疫苗对Mh422株和PmCQ2株攻毒的各自免疫保护率分别为53%～71%和100%。该研究结果表明,所制备的Mh422单菌苗对同型攻毒无免疫保护作用,在诱导机体抗体产生方面,Mh和Pm间无相互抑制作用,PmCQ2株具有促进Mh422株灭活疫苗对Mh422的免疫保护作用,这为牛溶血性曼氏杆菌和牛多杀性巴氏杆菌二联疫苗的进一步研究提供了理论基础。     

Deoxyribonucleic acids from Pasteurella multocida and Pasteurella haemolytica]

Pasteurella multocida and P. haemolytica strains contain between 1.5 and three per cent phosphorus, between nine and 14 per cent nitrogen, between two and four per cent DNA, and between five and 18 per cent RNA, the precise figures depending on culturing conditions. High-molecular DNA may be isolated by means of bacteriolysis, using deoxycholate or dodecylsulphate and the usual steps of purification, with yield and purity differing by strains. DNA with sufficient purity can be obtained from Sepharose 2 B by gel chromatography. The isolated DNA yields were characterised, base values being between 37 and 38 per cent GC for P. haemolytica and between 41 and 48 per cent GC for P. multocida. Highly suitable precursors to DNA synthesis for tritium labelling are 3H-thymidine, which is incorporated in excess of 3H-thymine by a factor of 255, as well as 3H-uracil, with its activity being recovered also from the pyrimidine bases of DNA via pyrimidine biosynthesis.     

Bovine CD18 identified as a species specific receptor for Pasteurella haemolytica leukotoxin.

Ligand blotting of Pasteurella haemolytica leukotoxin (LKT) susceptible BL3 bovine lymphoma cell membranes with LKT detected two putative receptors with Mr of 95 and 100 kDa, whereas no LKT binding to membrane proteins was detected for LKT non-susceptible human leukemic cells. Anti-bovine CD18 and CD11a/CD18 mAb recognized 95 and 100kDa bands from BL3 cell membranes. CD18 isolated from BL3 cell membranes bound LKT. Pre-incubation of BL3 cells with anti-bovine CD18 or CD11a/CD18 mAb caused partial inhibition of LKT-induced leukolysis. Therefore, we propose that bovine CD18 acts as a species-specific leukocyte receptor for P. haemolytica LKT.     

The effect of Pasteurella haemolytica and the leukotoxin of Pasteurella haemolytica on bovine lung explants.

Bovine lung explants were used in a study designed to compare the pathogenic effects of Pasteurella haemolytica type 1, a nonpathogenic organism Neisseria subflava, or the crude leukotoxin of P. haemolytica on alveolar macrophages and lung parenchymal cells. Concentrated, purified peripheral blood neutrophil suspensions were added with the bacteria to some explants. Duplicate pairs of cultures from each treatment group were fixed at regular intervals up to 24 hours after seeding and morphological changes were assessed by light and electron microscopy. Pasteurella haemolytica caused deterioration of alveolar macrophages within one hour but did not affect parenchymal cells for more than 12 hours. Neisseria subflava did not affect alveolar macrophages initially, but caused an accelerated deterioration after four hours. After 24 hours, bacterial overgrowth caused similar deterioration of all cells in explants seeded with either bacterium. Alveolar macrophages phagocytosed large numbers of N. subflava but rarely ingested P. haemolytica. Added neutrophils did not have any discernible effect on any of the explants and did not potentiate bacterial effects. Addition of crude leukotoxin of P. haemolytica to the culture medium significantly accelerated alveolar macrophage deterioration without apparent effect on parenchymal cell survival. These results support the hypothesis that the severe tissue destruction of fulminant pneumonic pasteurellosis is not a direct result of bacterial infection.