Bordetella pertussis, the causative agent of the acute childhood respiratory disease whooping cough, is a human-adapted variant of Bordetella bronchiseptica, which displays a broad host range and typically causes chronic, asymptomatic infections. These pathogens express a similar but not identical surface-exposed and secreted protein called filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA) that has been proposed to function as both a primary adhesin and an immunomodulator. To test the hypothesis that FHA plays an important role in determining host specificity and͞or the propensity to cause acute versus chronic disease, we constructed a B. bronchiseptica strain expressing FHA from B. pertussis (FHA Bp) and compared it with wild-type B. bronchiseptica in several naturalhost infection models. FHA Bp was able to substitute for FHA from B. bronchiseptica (FHA Bb) with regard to its ability to mediate adherence to several epithelial and macrophage-like cell lines in vitro, but it was unable to substitute for FHA Bb in vivo. Specifically, FHA Bb, but not FHABp, allowed B. bronchiseptica to colonize the lower respiratory tracts of rats, to modulate the inflammatory response in the lungs of immunocompetent mice, resulting in decreased lung damage and increased bacterial persistence, to induce a robust anti-Bordetella antibody response in these immunocompetent mice, and to overcome innate immunity and cause a lethal infection in immunodeficient mice. These results indicate a critical role for FHA in B. bronchiseptica-mediated immunomodulation, and they suggest a role for FHA in host specificity.inflammation ͉ adhesin ͉ respiratory infection ͉ filamentous hemagglutinin D espite widespread vaccine coverage, whooping cough, or pertussis, remains a serious threat to human health, and its incidence has been increasing in recent years (1, 2). The causative agents, Bordetella pertussis and Bordetella parapertussis hu , are human-adapted pathogens that belong to a clade of very closely related Gram-negative bacteria that cause respiratory infections in mammals. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that Bordetella bronchiseptica, which displays a broad host range and typically colonizes its hosts chronically and asymptomatically, was the progenitor of this clade, with B. pertussis diverging relatively early and B. parapertussis hu diverging independently and much more recently than B. pertussis (3-6). Adaptation to humans and the propensity to cause acute disease (in which the infection is eventually cleared) rather than chronic disease (characterized by persistence of the bacteria, often for the lifetime of the host) has, therefore, evolved twice within this group of bacteria. Although a variety of Bordetella virulence factors have been characterized (4, 7-10), the mechanisms that determine host specificity and disease characteristics are not understood.Filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA), a primary component of acellular pertussis vaccines, is a large, -helical, highly immunogenic protein that is both surface-associated and secreted (11)(12)(13). In vitro...