I am using female BALB/c mice (6-8 weeks old, 23-25g weight) for the testing of a phage cocktail. Initially, I determined Minimum Lethal Dose (MLD) of my bacterial strain (S.aureus isolated from mastitis milk samples), and MLD was found 3×10^10. Is it recommended to use this dose to cause infection in mice, and then treat mice with phage cocktail?
I could not find any paper reporting this high dose for systemic infection. Would be really thankful for any suggestions