Fig. 6. NMI ∆dot/icm WCV protects guinea pigs against body weight loss and splenomegaly following C. burnetii challenge.
a. Guinea pigs were subcutaneously vaccinated with 25 μg of C. burnetii WCVor 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. Body weight change is presented as percentage of body weight gained/lost at any given day compared to day 0 post-infection. b Body weight change at 2 days post maximum temperature is presented as body weight change versus expected weight at the measured time point for each individual animal, with a black dotted line at 0, indicating no change. c At euthanasia (14 days post-infection), splenomegaly was quantified and data are presented as geometric mean difference of spleen weight normalized to total body weight. Body weight change and splenomegaly were evaluated based on differences in group means (horizontal bar) with associated confidence intervals. Error bars represent standard deviation. 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 and **p ≤ 0.01.