Fig. 3.

Spread of L. monocytogenes strains in brain-slices as determined by size of infection foci. Results are shown relative to the internal control strain L104. a Aligned dot plot analysis of bacterial spread of the individual strains used in this study. Red: MLVA complex A; green: MLVA complex C; blue: MLVA complex B. The horizontal line indicates the mean. b Box plots comparing the total size of foci between complex A and complex C strains. Complex A strains cover a significantly larger area than complex C strains. c Box plot comparing total size of foci according to host species. Human strains caused larger infection foci in brain-slices than strains isolated from small ruminants. Box plots: Whiskers represent maxima and minima. The horizontal line represents the median, + is the mean, * = p < 0.05