TABLE 7.

Guinea pig weight and fecal shedding of L. monocytogenes at 72 h postinoculation

Lineage	Weight (%)			Fecal shedding (log CFU/g)
	Wild typea	ΔsigB mutantb	P valuec	Wild typed	ΔsigB mutante	P valuef
I	101.1 ± 8.9	106.5 ± 5.6	0.2129	5.3 ± 0.9	3.1 ± 0.7	0.0163
II	99.0 ± 8.4	106.6 ± 4.9	0.123	4.8 ± 1.5	0.0 ± 0.0	0.0163
IIIA	99.4 ± 3.7	105.7 ± 3.3	0.0465	6.1 ± 1.4	2.6 ± 2.4	0.0472
IIIB	91.6 ± 2.6	105.9 ± 9.2	0.0305	6.1 ± 0.1	3.3 ± 2.9	0.0532

^aAverage weight (± standard deviation) of guinea pig infected with wild-type strain at 72 h postinoculation (after euthanasia), expressed as a percentage of the weight at zero time (inoculation), which was defined as 100%.

^bAverage weight (± standard deviation) of guinea pig infected with the ΔsigB strain at 72 h postinoculation, expressed as a percentage of the weight at zero time, which was defined as 100%.

^cP value for t test for the weight of guinea pigs inoculated with the wild-type strain and the weight of guinea pigs inoculated with the ΔsigB strain. A P value of <0.05 indicates that there was a significant difference in the weight of animals at 72 h postinoculation.

^dAverage fecal shedding (± standard deviation) of wild-type parent strain at 72 h postinoculation.

^eAverage fecal shedding (± standard deviation) of ΔsigB strain at 72 h postinoculation.

^fP value for t test. A P value of <0.05 indicates that there is a significant difference in the average fecal shedding of L. monocytogenes between the wild-type and isogenic ΔsigB strains.