FIG 6.
Comparison of live C. muridarum organism recoveries from genital versus GI tracts of three different strains of mice intravaginally infected with C. muridarum. CBA/J, C57BL/6J, and C3H/HeJ mice (n = 3 to 5 for each strain) were intravaginally infected with the C. muridarum organisms (clone Nigg3G0.1.1), and both cervicovaginal and anorectal swabs were taken on different days after infection as listed along the x axis at the bottom of the figure. The number of live organisms recovered from the swabs was expressed as log10 IFUs (panels a, e, i, c, g, and k), and the number of mice with positive live-organism shedding (+ve) was expressed as a percentage (b, f, j, d, h, and l) as displayed along the y axis. Note that although live organisms were no longer detectable in the vaginal swabs of most mice 5 weeks after infection, significant levels of live organisms remained in the rectal swabs of most mice for >70 days after infection.