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Animal-passed, virulence-enhancedCampylobacter jejuni causes enteritis in neonatal mice

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Abstract

An animal model resembling the human disease caused byCampylobacter jejuni has been developed. Characteristic illness followed intragastric challenge of neonatal mice with strains ofC. jejuni enhanced for virulence by serial intraperitoneal passage in weanling mice of organisms suspended in either mucin or iron dextran. Such passage lowered the LD50 in weanlings from 2×1011 colony-forming units (CFU) to 2×105 CFU per mouse. Neonatal mice chellenged by intragastric intubation with 2×109 CFU of the virulence-enhanced organisms suspended in mucin or iron dextran showed signs of infection by day 5, including severe diarrhea, increased musus discharge occasionally with blood, and reduced weight gain. Diarrhea contionued for eight days, after which most animals recovered. This mouse infection model provides a means for assessing the determinants of virulence among strains ofC. jejuni.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, University of Maryland, 20742, College Park, Maryland, USA

    Shahana U. Kazmi & Bob S. Roberson

  2. Meat Science Research Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, US Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, Maryland, USA

    Norman J. Stern

Authors
  1. Shahana U. Kazmi
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  2. Bob S. Roberson
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  3. Norman J. Stern
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Kazmi, S.U., Roberson, B.S. & Stern, N.J. Animal-passed, virulence-enhancedCampylobacter jejuni causes enteritis in neonatal mice. Current Microbiology 11, 159–164 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01567342

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