Interaction of Strains of Different Sources and Genotypes with Bovine and Human Monocyte-Derived Macrophages.

Most human Q fever infections originate from small ruminants. By contrast, highly prevalent shedding of (.) by bovine milk rarely results in human disease.

Coxiella burnetii Infects Primary Bovine Macrophages and Limits Their Host Cell Response.

Although domestic ruminants have long been recognized as the main source of human Q fever, little is known about the lifestyle that the obligate intracellular Gram-negative bacterium Coxiella burnetii adopts in its animal host. Because macrophages are considered natural target cells of the pathogen, we established primary bovine monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) as an in vitro infection model to study reservoir host-pathogen interactions at the cellular level. In addition, bovine alveolar macrophages were included to take cell type peculiarities at a host entry site into account.