Figure 8.
Mice immunized with viable NMII bacteria confer protection against other virulent strains of C. burnetii. BALB/c mice were IP vaccinated with 1 × 105 GE of viable NMII and IP challenged with 1 × 107 GE of NMI, Scurry, or Priscilla at 28 days dpv. Body weight ratio (A), splenomegaly [(B), % of spleen weight/body weight], and bacterial burden (log10 C. burnetii com1 gene copy numbers) in the spleen (C) were evaluated at 14 dpi. Each experimental group includes four mice, with error bars representing the standard deviations from the means. *p < 0.05; ****p < 0.0001, as determined by Welch t test using GraphPad.