The pathophysiology of inhalational brucellosis in BALB/c mice.

To characterize the clinical presentation and pathophysiology of inhalational brucellosis, Balb/c mice were challenged with Brucella melitensis 16M in a nose-only aerosol exposure chamber. A low dose of 1000 cfu/animal of B. melitensis resulted in 45% of mice with tissue burdens eight weeks post-challenge. The natural history of brucellosis in mice challenged by higher aerosol doses was examined by serial euthanizing mice over an eight week period. Higher challenge doses of 1.00E+05 and 5.00E+05 cfu resulted in positive blood cultures 14 days post-challenge and bacterial burdens were observed in the lung, liver and/or spleens 14 days post-challenge. In addition, the progression of brucellosis was similar between mice challenged by the intranasal and aerosol routes. The results from this study support the use of the Balb/c aerosol nose-only brucellosis mouse model for the evaluation of therapeutics against inhalational brucellosis.