Fig. 5

Allergic reactions to mammalian meat consumption in zebrafish treated with tick salivary proteins and challenged with M. marinum. Experiment 2. Zebrafish were treated with both recombinant tick salivary proteins, metalloprotease (MET) and allergen-like p23 (p23), combined with saliva non-protein fraction (NPF) (Mix) and in comparison, with tick saliva, and PBS (control). Zebrafish (n = 10) were euthanized at Day 7 and the rest (n = 20) were challenged with M. marinum and euthanized at Day 25. (A) Zebrafish were examined daily, and the incidence of hemorrhagic type allergic reactions and mortality were compared between treatments by one-way ANOVA test with post-hoc Tukey HSD test (p < 0.05; n = 13–20 biological replicates). Significant differences between treatments and PBS control are shown with post-hoc Tukey HSD p-values. (B) Zebrafish weight was evaluated at Day 0 and at Day 25 for each animal to calculate weight gain per fish (grams, Day 25 – Day 0) and the percentage (%) of fish showing weight gain on each group. The results were compared with PBS-treated group by Student’s t-test (p < 0.05; n = 15–17 biological replicates).