Salmonella Serovars and Their Host Specificity

Salmonella is a causative agent for a wide variety of pathological diseases in humans, cattle, poultry and other farm animals and hence Salmonella infections are a major cause of concern to humans, veterinary animals and to food industry. With characterization of over 2500 Salmonella serovars, the pathogen nearly infects all vertebrates but the severity of infection varies from one serovar to another depending upon their host specificity. Some Salmonella serovars are restricted to one or few hosts while others have a broad host spectrum. Thus the understanding of the mechanisms involving host preference by one serovar over another is very important. As our knowledge about host adaptability will then be instrumental in designing better vaccines. Furthermore, methods involving identification of genetic markers for host specificity will prove to be instrumental in determining virulence factors for other pathogenic bacteria that cause systemic infections.