Table 2.

Bacterial cell counts (BCC) and bacterial colony sizes (BCS)

	Added cortisol concentration (µg/L)				p-value
	0 (control)	500	1000	5000
BCC (log10 CFU/mL)	6.21 ± 0.23	6.13 ± 0.23	6.32 ± 0.23	5.48 ± 0.23	0.047
BCS (µm/mL)	3421 ± 178	2765 ± 178	3128 ± 178	3421 ± 178	0.014

Least Squares Means and standard errors (LSM ± SE) of the log10 transformed bacterial cell counts (BCC) (log10 CFU/mL) and bacterial colony sizes (BCS) (µm) retrieved from the highly and low virulent isolates inoculated modified Shieh broths 24 h after addition of the appropriate cortisol concentrations [cortisol] (µg/L).