FIG 6.

Virulence assessment of CSKP204002 and CSKP204079. (A) Groups of 8-week-old BALB/c male mice were intranasally (IN) inoculated with 1 × 10⁶ CFU of CSKP204002 or CSKP204079. The 5-day curves of sepsis developed in the mice with IN inoculation of CSKP204002 (n = 8; orange line) or CSKP204079 (n = 8; red line) were determined by Kaplan-Meier analysis using Prism 9.3.1 (GraphPad). (B) Bacterial loads in lungs, brain, liver, kidneys, spleen, and blood were determined on the day when the mice showed signs of sepsis or on the fifth day post-IN-inoculation for those with no signs of sepsis. (C) Groups of 8-week-old BALB/c male mice were orally inoculated with 5 × 10⁸ CFU of CSKP204002 or CSKP204079. Bacterial loads in the lungs, brain, liver, kidneys, and spleen were determined on the third day postoral inoculation. Dots present CFU/g of tissues from individual mice. Mean ± SEM values for the groups infected with CSKP204002 (orange) or CSKP204079 (dark red) are shown by bars using Prism 9.3.1 (GraphPad). P values were determined by Student's t test between CSKP204002 and CSKP204079. *, P < 0.05 (one-tailed).