Groups of five age matched (8-10 weeks old) female BALB/c mice used in this study were purchased from Charles River (Calco, Italy). Three strains (S. Typhimurium #16, S. Typhimurium #92, S. Typhimurium #12), representative of the 13 genotypically characterized S. Typhimurium isolates, were selected for an in vivo analysis of virulence by using the Competitive Index (CI) resulting from mixed infections [29] . In particular, two strains were selected that exhibited the highest and lowest number of virulence factors (strains #92 and #112, respectively), and strain #16, carrying the same virulotype as strain #92, but without the locus agfA (Table 1) .