Fig. 5. NMI ∆dot/icm WCV protects against C. burnetii challenge.
a Guinea pigs were subcutaneously vaccinated with 25 μg of C. burnetii WCV or Q-VAX®, or mock infected with saline, then allowed to rest for 28 days. Animals were then intraperitoneally infected with 106 GE NMI or mock infected with saline, monitored for 14 days, and euthanized. b Body temperatures were recorded daily from the day of infection (day 0) until the day of euthanasia (day 14). Temperatures were plotted for each animal per time point throughout the duration of infection. Fever was defined as ≥39.5 °C and is indicated by the dotted line. Fever duration c and maximum body temperature d are presented for each animal. These two endpoints were evaluated based on differences in group means (horizontal bar) with associated confidence intervals. For each reported comparison, p-values were computed at the α = 0.05 level for two-sided two-sample t tests, allowing for unequal variances between groups. No adjustment was made for multiple comparisons due to the sample sizes (n = 4 except for Saline:Saline with n = 3) and the descriptive nature of the study. *p ≤ 0.05.