In vivo competition assays. Comparative colonization levels, presented as the log10 competitive index, in the blood, liver, lung, and spleen of SPF chickens 24 h after inoculation with a mixture of wild-type APEC strain E058 and the sodA mutant or complementation strain. Horizontal bars indicate the mean log10 CI values. Statistically significant decreases in CI values are indicated with asterisks (**, P < 0.01).