Pertussis is an acute, highly contagious, potentially life-threatening respiratory disease, caused by the Gram-negative bacterium Bordetella pertussis. The underlying factors leading to the failure of public health measures to control pertussis disease using currently licensed vaccines are poorly understood. A more complete understanding of this disease and of the mechanisms of vaccine-mediated protection is a critical public health need.

The baboon model of pertussis, developed in the laboratories of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), is the only animal model of pertussis that recapitulates the disease as observed in human patients. Refinement of the baboon model to include establishment of infection by means of natural transmission will enable a more refine evaluation of the differences between the licensed acellular pertussis vaccines that fail to prevent infection and the whole cell vaccines that reduce infection. The performance of this study requires the purchase and delivery of twenty, Bordetella-free baboons.