Fig. 4.

rIde_Ssuis vaccination protects against mortality caused by S. suis cps9 challenge. The Kaplan-Meier diagram shows mortality of rIde_Ssuis prime-booster-booster (n = 9) and placebo-treated (n = 9) growing piglets after infection. Piglets were challenged through intravenous application of 2 × 10⁸ CFU of S. suis strain 16085/3b (mrp* sly⁺cps9) 17 days after 2nd booster immunization. In case of high fever (≥40.5 °C), apathy and anorexia persisting over 32 h as well as in all cases of central nervous system dysfunction or clinical signs of acute polyarthritis, animals were euthanized for animal welfare reasons. All surviving piglets were sacrificed 14 days post infection (dpi). Statistical analysis was conducted with the log-rank test (p value is shown below the diagram).