The sham-infected pigs had no significant gross lesions. Detailed histopathological findings in the lungs and skeletal tissue have been described elsewhere (Jensen et al., 2010). In brief, microabscesses, often with thrombosis of adjacent vessels, were seen in the skeletal tissues and lungs. In the skeletal tissues, the number of microabscesses increased over time, whereas the opposite was seen in the lung tissue, where no acute microabscesses were found at 48 h, only the more chronic macroscopically visible abscesses seen at necropsy. In the spleen, microabscesses and increased numbers of neutrophils were found at 12 and 24 h PI. Microabscesses

were found in the livers of two pigs at 12 h (I-1 and I-2), and one pig at 48 h (III-1) had an isolated area with venous thrombosis and acute centrilobular necrosis. Light fibrin exudation in varying degrees was seen in the livers Cabozantinib order of the infected pigs at 48 h (group III) (Fig. 1). Cardiac lesions consisted of subendocardial accumulations of neutrophils, which were mainly

seen at 24 h, acute necrotizing and purulent multifocal myocarditis in two pigs at 12 (I-1) and 48 h (III-1) and acute Enzalutamide clinical trial endocardial thrombosis in one pig (III-1) at 48 h. A microabscess was found in the kidney of one animal (I-2) at 12 h. No significant histopathological lesions were found in the sham-infected pigs. Bacterial blood counts were negative in the controls and were low in the S. aureus-inoculated pigs throughout the experiment, with a small increase in some animals at 12 and 24 h. Here, a peak value of 7 CFU mL−1 was found, but at 48 h,

all blood samples were negative. Bacteriological cultivation from tissues from the inoculated pigs showed that the counts declined in the lungs, liver and spleen from 12 to 48 h, whereas they increased in bone tissue (Fig. 2). The number of WBC and neutrophils showed a comparable increase, which peaked at 24 h PI (Fig. 3a–b). The number of platelets showed a clear tendency to decrease over time in the inoculated pigs (Fig. 3c). Furthermore, in the inoculated pigs of group III, thromboelastography (TEG) revealed increased hypercoagulability over time (Fig. 3d). No obvious differences were observed between inoculated and control animals in blood urea nitrogen and serum creatinine (Fig. 4a–b). Loperamide At 36 and 48 h, the serum levels of bilirubin were increased, with a peak seen in pig no. III-1 (66 times the level at 0 h) (Fig. 4c). The levels of creatine kinase were only increased in pig no. III-2 (Fig. 4d). The AST levels in group III were increased at 36 and 48 h, with a maximum, 3.5 and 5 times increase in the 0 h level reached by pig nos. III-1 and III-2 (Fig. 4e). Serum alkaline phosphatase did not show obvious differences between inoculated and control animals (Fig. 4f). Serum iron levels decreased, reaching the lowest level at 24 or 36 h, and stabilized at that level for the rest of the study (Fig. 5d).