We are very pleased to have collaborated on the thesis work of Maria Gaudino, (Mariette Ducatez/Gilles Meyer – IHAP, University of Toulouse, INRAE, ENVT, Toulouse, France), which has been published today in Journal of Virology.
Our collaborators have used the organotypic lung model precision-cut lung slices to study the interplay between IDV and M. bovis coinfection. The results obtained show that a primary IDV infection promotes M. bovis superinfection by increasing the bacterial replication and the ultrastructural damages in lung pneumocytes. Interestingly, IDV impaired the innate immune response triggered by M. bovis by decreasing the expression of several pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines that are important for immune cell recruitment and the bacterial clearance.
These results highlight previously undescribed innate immune mechanisms in cattle and improve our understanding of host-microbe interactions and the contribution of influenza D viruses to pathogenesis.
Respiratory coinfections 