Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae is a species of Mycoplasma bacteria that specifically infects sheep and goat, which is the cause of ovine infectious pleuropneumonia.In an effort to understand the pathogen-host interaction between the M.ovipneumoniae and airway epithelial cells, we investigated the host cell apoptosis in a primary air-liquid interface (ALI) epithelial culture model generated from bronchial epithelial cells of N ingxia Tan sheep (ovis aries).