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Koch's Postulates Explained

Koch's postulates are a set of criteria developed by Robert Koch that are still used today to define a causative relationship between a microbe and a disease. The postulates require that 1) the pathogen must be found in every case of the disease, 2) it must be isolated from the host and grown in pure culture, 3) the disease must be reproduced when a pure culture is inoculated into a healthy susceptible host, and 4) the pathogen must be recoverable from the experimentally infected host. Koch's postulates provide a framework for establishing causation between microbes and diseases.

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16 views9 pages

Koch's Postulates Explained

Koch's postulates are a set of criteria developed by Robert Koch that are still used today to define a causative relationship between a microbe and a disease. The postulates require that 1) the pathogen must be found in every case of the disease, 2) it must be isolated from the host and grown in pure culture, 3) the disease must be reproduced when a pure culture is inoculated into a healthy susceptible host, and 4) the pathogen must be recoverable from the experimentally infected host. Koch's postulates provide a framework for establishing causation between microbes and diseases.

Uploaded by

Ella Boyce
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Infection and Disease

Koch’s Postulates
Infection & infectivity Disease and Pathogenicity
□ colonise the host, □ colonise the host,

□ invade the host tissue(s), □ invade the host tissue(s),

□cause essential tissue damage ,


□ survive the host’s defences and
□ evade or overcome the host's defences.
□ beable to, -on a limited scale-,
multiply and disseminate within the □ be able to significantly multiply and
host. leave the host.
How do we know that a given
organism is the cause of a particular
disease?
• German physician and co-founder of
Koch’s postulates bacteriology
• 1843 – 1910
• Nobel Prize 1905

Pure Reproduce Disease


Organism Isolated Pure culture
culture disease in animal
Koch’s postulates in summary
The pathogen must be:

□Present in every case of the disease

□Isolated from the diseased host & grown in pure culture

□The specific disease must be reproduced when a pure


culture of the pathogen is inoculated into a healthy
susceptible host
□The pathogen must be recoverable from the
experimentally infected host
How do we know that a given organism is the
cause of a particular disease?

• 1. Obligate pathogens

• They are never part of the normal flora but cause subclinical or
clinical infection, e.g. Mycobacterium bovis, Bacillus anthracis
So how do we know that a given organism is
the cause of a particular disease?
• 2. Opportunistic pathogens
Diagnosis and effective control not only depends not just on isolating an
organism, but in establishing a plausible link between the laboratory
findings, recognised syndromes and the host’s profile and history

Environment

[Link] pathogen isolated Recognised


from clinical samples syndromes
-repeatedly (pneumonia,
septicaemia
-in pure culture

Host profile
e.g. species, age
THE END

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