FIG 3.

Brucella abortus S2308 persisted in the uterus of chronically infected nonpregnant mice, reducing the number of successful pregnancies. (A) Bacterial recovery in the chronically infected mice (animals were infected for 8 weeks prior to breeding, and tissues were evaluated on gestational day 18) that had successful pregnancies (n = 9). Data are presented as the mean ± SD. (B) Percentage of animals that had successful pregnancies in the PBS or S2308-challenged groups. Fisher’s exact test (PBS, n = 9/20; S2308, n = 13/15). (C) Number of live pups in those chronically infected mice that had successful pregnancies. Mann-Whitney test. Error bars indicate the standard deviation. *, P < 0.05; **, P < 0.01; ns, not significant.