Abstract
When protozoa engulf, they typically also digest that ingested bacteria, except in the case of Salmonella. Remarkably, some strains of these bacteria become more virulent when consumed by protozoa that inhabit the rumen of cattle, according to researchers at the National Animal Disease Center (NADC) in Ames, Iowa. However, once a chemical agent eradicates protozoa of the rumen, the virulence of that bacterial pathogen diminishes, according to microbiologist Mark Rasmussen and veterinarian Steven Carlson at the NADC Food Safety and Enteric Diseases Research Unit. In a sense, protozoa may serve “as reservoirs of [bacterial] disease in animals,” Rasmussen says.
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