Korean J Vet Res.  2011 Mar;51(1):15-20.

The virulence of Brucella abortus isolated from cattle in Korea

• Lim JJ
• Kim JH
• Kim DH
• Lee JJ
• Kim DG
• Jun MH
• Kim SH
• Chang HH
• Lee HJ
• Min WG
• Kim S

Abstract

In this study, we isolated 12 of Brucella (B.) spp. from cattle, which have been positive in Rose Bangal test and tube agglutination test in Gyeongbuk province in 2009. According to AMOS PCR analysis, isolated 12 strains were identified as B. abortus. Murine derived macrophage, RAW 264.7 cells, were infected with isolated 12 strains or reference strain (B. abortus 544), and bacterial internalization were characterized. According to these results, we divided the isolated strains into the following three groups: class I, lower internalization than that of B. abortus 544; class II, similar internalization to that of that of B. abortus 544; class III, higher internalization than that of B. abortus 544 within RAW 264.7 cells. Furthermore, intracellular growth, bacterial adherent assay, LAMP-1 colocalization, virulence in mice and surface protein pattern were characterized. From these results, representative strains of class III showed lower LAMP-1 colocalization, higher adherent efficiency, higher virulence in mice than those of B. abortus 544, and showed different pattern of surface proteins. These results suggest that B. abortus field strains, isolated from cattle in Korea, possess various virulence properties and higher internalization ability of field strain may have an important role for its virulence expression.

Keyword

Brucella abortus; cattle; phagocytes; virulence

MeSH Terms

Agglutination Tests
Animals
Brucella
Brucella abortus
Cattle
Korea
Macrophages
Membrane Proteins
Mice
Phagocytes
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Sprains and Strains
Membrane Proteins