Detection of pathological changes, <i>C. abortus</i> organisms and genomic DNA in the placentas of ewes intranasally inoculated with <i>C. abortus</i> prior to pregnancy (group1–3), intranasally administered control inoculum (group 4a) or subcutaneously injected with <i>C. abortus</i> at 70 days of

asee Table 1. bnumber of ewes with histopathological lesions in placental samples: +, lesions characteristic of C. abortus infection; +/−, mild non-specific changes; −, no lesions observed; ns, no samples available. cdetection of chlamydial EBs following mZN staining of smears (swabs used where placentas were not available): +, positive for chlamydial antigen; −, no EBs detected. dmean (+/− SEM) [median] of the number of C. abortus genomes detected per µl total DNA swab extract. eincludes lamb that died as a result of dystocia. fconsidered negative as below the background level of 40 genome copies.