Clinical, Experimental, and Genomic Differences between Intermediately Pathogenic, Highly Pathogenic, and Epidemic<i>Streptococcus suis</i>

Intermediately pathogenic strain ST25 has evolved to become highly pathogenic strain ST1, which, in turn, has more recently evolved to become epidemic strain ST7. ST7 has the ability to stimulate the production of massive amounts of proinflammatory cytokines, leading to STSLS.