Mj. Jacobsen et al., COMPARISON OF VIRULENCE OF DIFFERENT ACTINOBACILLUS-PLEUROPNEUMONIAE SEROTYPES AND BIOTYPES USING AN AEROSOL INFECTION MODEL, Veterinary microbiology, 49(3-4), 1996, pp. 159-168
An aerosol infection model for inoculation of pigs with Actinobacillus
pleuropneumoniae is described, With this model the virulence of three
A. pleuropneumoniae biotype 1 strains representing serotypes 2, 5b an
d 6, and one Danish biotype 2 were compared using 13-week-old pigs for
inoculation. The pigs were sacrificed 24 h after aerosol exposure and
lung lesions were evaluated. In pigs exposed to aerosols of suspensio
ns containing 10(4) CFU/ml of serotypes 2, 5b and 6, a number of 5-10
lesions of haemorrhagic necrotizing pneumonia were induced, For the bi
otype 2 strain the dose creating similar lesions was 10(9) CFU/ml. Rep
eated experiments confirmed these results showing similar virulence of
serotypes 2, 5b and 6 whereas the biotype 2 strain proved less virule
nt, The aerosol infection model allowed a comparison of the number of
A. pleuropneumoniae CFU/liter air which were necessary to induce lung
lesions in susceptible pigs, This indicates that the model will be wel
l suited for virulence studies of A. pleuropneumoniae serotypes in pig
s.