Constitutional Resistance to Infection

This book is about mechanisms of innate immunity employed by a variety of host species in response to the presence of microorganisms pathogenic for related species. This type of resistance to infection does not depend on the ability of the host to mount an immune response to a specific microbe, rather the capacity to resist infection or to clear a challenge dose of a potential pathogen is present without regard to previous exposure to that organism. As is clearly shown in the chapters comprising this book, the study of this type of immunity in resistant species has the potential to reveal new insights into the pathogenesis of disease in susceptible hosts.