Fig. 1

IFNγ gene expression in PBL. The ΔΔCq values of IFNγ as LSM ± SD and the corresponding fold changes are mapped on the ordinates for the control (“Ctr”, n = 5) and the treated animal groups (“LR”, low responder cows, n = 4; “HR”, high responder cows n = 5). The lower X-axis shows the 31-week treatment period (TW). The upper X-axis depicts the immunization (IM) specified by the routes of vaccine application [nasal (N), percutaneous (PC), subcutaneous (SC) and intracutaneous (IC)] per TW. Incomplete Freund’s adjuvant (iFA) was solely part of the MucoCD-I vaccine in TW 31. The gray bars in TWs 3 and 17 highlight the times of the first uses of vaccine batches A and B, respectively. During the treatment periods with both vaccine batches and the particular TW before the first use of vaccine batch A or B, substantial differences within the same group are marked by asterisks (p < 0.05). Lower case (a, b, c) indicate evident differences (p < 0.05) between the groups on the same dates