Fig 7.
Virulence of B. cereus G9241 spores in an aerosol challenge model of respiratory anthrax-like disease in mice. (A) Survival of C57BL/6 mice following aerosol infection. Cohorts of 10 mice were exposed to aerosols of B. cereus G9241 spores and monitored over 14 days. The actual doses retained in the lungs of animals following exposure was determined for a subset of mice from each challenge group and are denoted in the legend. (B) Dissemination of vegetative forms following aerosol infection of B. cereus G9241 spores. Cohorts of 20 mice were infected with 1 × 106 spores derived from B. cereus G9241. Five mice were euthanized in 24-h intervals and necropsied. The spleen and lung homogenates were diluted and spread on agar plates to enumerate bacterial loads. Each circle represents data from one mouse. The closed circle denotes a mouse that succumbed to infection. The bars represent the arithmetic means of CFU values. Data shown are representative of two independent experiments.