. 2012 Jul 25;7(7):e41031. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0041031

Table 4. Numbers of virulence-associated genes and properties of the avian E. coli strains in vivo and in monolayers of HD11 macrophages.

Properties	Strains
	MT78	IMT5155	UEL17	IMT5104
Number of virulence-associated genes^*	23	25	18	5
Mean lesion scores in all organs	6.6	7.5^a	5.2	n.d.
Systemic infection	yes	yes	no	no
Extent of lung colonization (CFU)	10⁸	10⁸ ^a	10⁶	10⁶ ^b
Focal infection and inflammation in the lung	+++	+++	++	+++
TUNEL-positive cells in the lung	+++	+++	++	+++
Association with HD11 macrophages	+++	+	+++	+
Caspase 3/7 activation in HD11 macrophages induced by viable bacteria	+++	+	+++	+
Caspase 3/7 activation in HD11 macrophages induced by UV-inactivated bacteria	+	+	+	+

total no. of genes tested: 46 [14]; n.d. = not determined; − = no; + = low; ++ = medium; +++ = high.