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Article History

Received: 28 March 2026

Accepted: 16 September 2026

First Online: 1 October 2026

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate: Carcass sampling for the original bacterial strain isolation was performed on a sika deer that had died after naturally occurring disease and did not involve any intervention in live animals. Verbal informed consent for carcass sampling was obtained from the owner of the deer farm before sample collection.All live animal experiments in this study, including the mouse experiments, sika deer immunization experiment, and sika deer challenge experiment, were reviewed and approved by the Laboratory Animal Ethics Committee of Hebei Normal University of Science and Technology, with the approval number HBNST-CAST2024006. The experiments were conducted in accordance with relevant national guidelines, including GB/T 35892–2018 and GB/T 39760–2021. Verbal informed consent for the use of the sika deer and for all experimental procedures involving the animals was obtained from the farm owner before initiation of the study. BALB/c mice and sika deer were maintained under appropriate husbandry conditions and had free access to feed and water throughout the experiment.Mice were anesthetized by intraperitoneal injection of sodium pentobarbital at a dose of 40–60 mg/kg. At terminal sampling, mice were euthanized by intraperitoneal injection of an overdose of sodium pentobarbital at a dose of ≥ 150 mg/kg, and tissues were collected after death was confirmed. Sika deer were anesthetized by intramuscular injection of a xylazine–ketamine combination. At the study endpoint, sika deer were humanely euthanized by intravenous injection of an overdose of sodium pentobarbital via the jugular vein under deep anesthesia, and necropsy was performed after the absence of heartbeat and respiration was confirmed.

Consent for publication: Not applicable, as this manuscript does not contain any individual person’s data in any form.

Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.