IMMUNITY AGAINST PASTEURELLA HAEMOLYTICA LEUKOTOXIN

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) complex, shipping fever, or pneumomic pasteurellosis, is a multifactorial disease whereby a combination of viral infection, adverse environment and poor immune status may combine to predispose animals to bacterial infections. The exotoxin, or leukotoxin (Lkt), may contribute to pathogenesis by impairing the primary lung defenses and subsequent immune responses or by causing inflammations as a result of leukocyte lysis. The present invention provides a modified microorganism which produces an Lkt toxin, wherein said Lkt toxin is partially or fully inactivated. In a further embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a modified microorganism wherein an Lkt toxin operon including an Lkt structural gene and/or a post translational activator of the organism is partially or fully inactivated. The present applicants have found that a precursor of Lkt toxin has reduced toxic activity. Surprisingly, the Lkt toxin precursor is capable of inducing an immune response in an animal that offers cross protection against heterologous challenge with a microorganism which produces the Lkt toxin. A microorganism which naturally produces an Lkt toxin may be engineered to produce an inactive Lkt toxin precursor by eliminating the post-translational activator of the precursor product. Accordingly, in a preferred embodiment the microorganism is unable to produce a posttranslational activator of the Lkt toxin precursor or produces an inactivated post-translational activator of the Lkt toxin precursor. The posttranslational activator may be a product of the Lkt C gene.