Fig. 5.
Survival, relative body weight, temperature change and hematological analysis of immunized ferrets in a lethal challenge model. Six ferrets in each group were i.m. inoculated with 107.6 TCID50 of CB1/2014. Survival (A) relative body weight (B) and temperature (C) were assessed and are shown as SEM. Data (means ± SEM) are presented in B and C. Blood from infected ferrets was collected every other day and hematological examination was performed using a Celltac hematology analyzer. Platelet counts from ferrets preimmunized with rHB29 (D), rHB29NSsP102A (E), or rHB2912aaNSs (F) and subsequently challenged with CB1/2014 or animals infected with CB1/2014 only (G) are shown. CB1/2014 infected ferrets were additionally infected for positive control. Normal range of platelet counts in ferrets are 171.7 to 1,280.6 × 103/µL (46, 58). The dashed lines indicate the normal value range for platelet counts. The asterisks indicate significance compared to each day p.i. sample. The 2-tailed Mantel–Cox method (A) or the one-way ANOVA with Dunnett multiple comparison test (B–F) was used to assess P values by the 2-tailed, unpaired t test. *P = 0.0025 (A); *P < 0.02, **P < 0.0001, ***P = 0.0053, ****P = 0.0019, and *****P = 0.0478 (B); *P = 0.0377, **P = 0.0140, ***P < 0.0001, ****P = 0.0025, and *****P = 0.0243 (C); *P = 0.0055 and **P = 0.0124 (E); and *P = 0.0003 and **P = 0.0005 (G).