Fig. 1: Clinical, hematological, and mammary response of the cows according to their immunization group at three informative time points of the E. coli mastitis course.

a Experimental scheme with immunization and experimental challenge phases. Systemic (b) and mammary (f) clinical scores were established as composite values of several signs recorded by observers blind to the treatment. Milk production expressed as the relative percentage of milk produced at each time compared to the average production before inoculation (e). Milk bacteriology (g) expressed as the log 10 value of colony-forming units per mL of milk, white blood cells (c) and neutrophils (d) counts are presented at the same times. Each dot corresponds to an individual cow with colors indicating the treatment group and the box plot showing the mean and standard deviation at each time point. Letter indicate a difference (Kruskal–wallis, p < 0.05) between groups (a: CONT vs IM; b: CONT vs IMM; c: IM vs IMM).