Fig. 1: Body weight and viral loads in dose-comparison experiment.

A, B Body weights were recorded daily. Relative body weights over time after A D614G or B Omicron BA.5 inoculation, day 0 was set at 100%. Symbols represent individual hamsters (n = 3 per group); line represents group means. Age- and sex-matched uninfected hamsters are shown in gray. C, D Viral load in throat swabs after C D614G or D Omicron BA.5 inoculation was measured by RT-qPCR and plotted as TCID₅₀ eq/ml over time. Undetermined values (ND) were set as 20 TCID₅₀ eq/ml. Symbols represent individual hamsters (n = 3 per group); line represents group geometric means. E, F Infectious virus in throat swabs after E D614G or F Omicron BA.5 inoculation was measured by virus isolation and plotted as TCID₅₀/ml over time. The dotted lines represent the lower limit of detection (60). Undetermined values (ND) were set as 20 TCID_50. Symbols represent individual hamsters (n = 3 per group); line represents group geometric means. Groups were compared using two-way ANOVA, corrected with Tukey. Asterisks indicate significant differences at specific timepoints and are shown in colors (female 10³ vs. male 10³: gray; female 10⁴ vs. male 10⁴: red; male 10³ vs. male 10⁴: black; male 10³ vs. male uninfected: orange; male 10⁴ vs. male uninfected: brown; female 10⁴ vs. female uninfected: blue). *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001.