From the daily archives: Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Virulence is the ability of a microorganism to produce disease. Virulence depends on the number of infecting bacteria, their route of entry into the body, the response of the host immune system and any characteristics specific to that bacteria.
M. haemolytica is responsible for causing contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, a bacterial disease which causes pneumonia and inflammation of the lung membranes and Bordetella bronchiseptica is an evolutionary progenitor of B. pertussis and is one of the organisms responsible for causing kennel cough in dogs.
