Leptospiral tissue burden.

<p>Kidney (panel A) and liver (panel B) tissues were subjected to DNA extraction and real-time PCR to measure the leptospiral copies per microgram of tissue DNA. Means (bars) and actual values (circles or diamonds) are depicted for animals challenged subcutaneously or intradermally. Vertical dashed line indicates the point at which animals began to meet endpoint criteria. The number of asterisks indicate the level of significance compared to the control group (*P≤0.05, ** P≤0.01, ***P≤0.001, ****P≤0.0001). Leptospiral tissue burdens after subcutaneous challenge were significantly higher than after intradermal challenge on day 6 in both the kidney and liver (P<0.01).