Salmonella Typhimurium interference with the humoral immune response of pigs

Foodborne salmonellosis is one of the most important bacterial zoonotic diseases worldwide. Salmonella Typhimurium is the serovar most frequently isolated from slaughter pigs in Europe. Circumvention of the host’s immune system by Salmonella might contribute to persistent infection of pigs. We found that Salmonella Typhimurium strain 112910a, which is able to persist in pigs, was capable of downregulating the expression of major histocompatibility class II (MHC II) molecules on porcine alveolar macrophages (PAM) in a Salmonella pathogenicity island 2 (SPI-2) dependent way and that MHC II downregulation was Salmonella strain dependent