Figure 5.

Mouse infections with MAA wild type (black bars) and MAAΔlprG (white bars). BALB/c mice were intranasally (a) or intraperitoneally (b) inoculated with bacillary suspensions to 1 × 10⁷ viable cells. Four mice per group were sacrificed at 21 and 80 (a) or 2, 7, 14, and 70 (b) days postinfection and lungs (a) or spleen (b) were removed. The CFUs were determined by four dilutions of each homogenate spread onto duplicate plates. The values are expressed as the means ± SD of log CFU in four mice. These data are based on two independent experiments with similar results. Significantly different from values of the wild type strain **P < 0.01, *P < 0.05.