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. 2019 Nov 14;85(23):e01887-19. doi: 10.1128/AEM.01887-19

FIG 4.

FIG 4

The B. afzelii spirochete load in the ear tissue biopsy specimens of the bank vole offspring at 35 days postinfection (p.i.) depends on the maternal antibody status and the challenge strain. MatAb− (left) and MatAb+ (right) refer to the offspring from the uninfected control mothers and the mothers infected with B. afzelii strain NE4049, respectively. The offspring were challenged via tick bite with either strain NE4049 or strain Fin-Jyv-A3 at 35 days postbirth (PB). The MatAb− offspring were equally susceptible to both strains. The MatAb+ offspring were protected against the maternal strain (NE4049) but not the new strain (Fin-Jyv-A3). The control group refers to 2 MatAb− offspring that were each infested with 4 uninfected I. ricinus nymphs. These two individuals showed the baseline B. afzelii spirochete load in the ear tissue biopsy specimens for bank vole offspring that were bitten by ticks but not infected with B. afzelii. Shown are the medians (black lines), the 25th and 75th percentiles (edges of the box), the minimum and maximum values (whiskers), and the outliers (circles).