A Clinical Scoring System and Impact of Athymic Nude Mouse Age on Corynebacterium bovis Clinical Disease

Corynebacterium bovis infection in biomedical research is synonymous with skin hyperkeratosis of athymic nude mice. This clinical sign can be obvious and is the namesake for 'scaly skin disease.' Other clinical signs that accompany scaly skin, including early presentation, duration, and rate of resolution, are less well known. The goal of this study was to characterize the clinical signs of C. bovis infection in nude mice under experimental conditions and develop a quantifiable scoring system. For the development, prospective trial, and application of this clinical scoring system, 93 naïve Hsd:Athymic Nude mice were used, of which 81 were exposed to soiled bedding from clinically ill C. bovis -infected NSG mice. The emergence of clinical signs was monitored and scored daily for 14 d. We identified 3 categories of clinical signs including skin hyperemia, skin hyperkeratosis, and surrogate indicators of overall health. Each of these defined categories appeared consistently and progressed and regressed temporally. We subsequently used this scoring system to determine if the age of Hsd:Athymic Nude mice (6 compared with 10 wk) at time of infection affects clinical severity. Our findings demonstrate that 6-wk-old mice demonstrate more severe clinical signs. Ten-week-old mice showed less skin hyperemia and no skin hyperkeratosis and were less affected by the infection based on surrogates of overall health. Here we show the utility of this novel scoring system and the impact of nude mouse age at the time of infection on C. bovis clinical disease.