Adherence of Pasteurella multocida to rabbit respiratory epithelial cells in vitro.

Adult clinically healthy New Zealand rabbits were sampled bacteriologically to detect carriers and non-carriers of Pasteurella multocida. Both groups of rabbits were killed separately to obtain samples of nasal, buccal, pharyngeal and tracheal epithelial cells. The cells were tested for adherence in vitro to 18 isolates of P. multocida from healthy and sick rabbits, from ovine, bovine, cat and swine. The number of bacteria adhered per cell up to 25 cells per preparation were registered. Analysis of variance was used to interpret the significance of results. Adherence of P. multocida was significantly higher to carrier rabbit cells than to non-carrier rabbit cells. Bacterial isolates from rabbits were more adherent to rabbit cells than to isolates from other species. The frequency was higher to buccal and pharyngeal cells than to nasal and tracheal cells. Isolates from healthy animals adhered better to rabbit cells than isolates from sick animals, except the isolates from sick animals which adhered better to nasal cells of non carriers than did isolates from healthy rabbits.