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.