Figure 3. Three elimination patterns.

Each line represents the number of CFUs of each volunteer at day 1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 14 and 21 after the inoculation with the mixture of S. aureus strain 1036 of human origin and strain 5062 of bovine origin. Fig. 3A shows the data of those volunteers who eliminated both strains within 21 days. Fig. 3B shows those volunteers in whom both strains showed similar elimination rates and Fig. 3C those where the bovine strain survived more successfully than the human strain.