About the Authors

Huansheng Yang

Contributed equally to this work with: Huansheng Yang, Dezhi Fu

Affiliations Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Region and Research Center for Healthy Breeding of Livestock and Poultry, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha, Hunan, People’s Republic of China, Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

Dezhi Fu

Contributed equally to this work with: Huansheng Yang, Dezhi Fu

Affiliation Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Region and Research Center for Healthy Breeding of Livestock and Poultry, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha, Hunan, People’s Republic of China

Hua Shao

Affiliations Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Region and Research Center for Healthy Breeding of Livestock and Poultry, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha, Hunan, People’s Republic of China, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Xiangfeng Kong

nnkxf@isa.ac.cn (XK); yinyulong@isa.ac.cn (YY)

Affiliations Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Region and Research Center for Healthy Breeding of Livestock and Poultry, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha, Hunan, People’s Republic of China, Huanjiang Observation and Research Station for Karst Ecosystem, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Huanjiang, Guangxi, People’s Republic of China

Wence Wang

Affiliation Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Region and Research Center for Healthy Breeding of Livestock and Poultry, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha, Hunan, People’s Republic of China

Xiaojian Yang

Affiliation Department of Animal and Poultry Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Charles M. Nyachoti

Affiliation Department of Animal Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Yulong Yin

nnkxf@isa.ac.cn (XK); yinyulong@isa.ac.cn (YY)

Affiliation Key Laboratory of Agro-ecological Processes in Subtropical Region and Research Center for Healthy Breeding of Livestock and Poultry, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha, Hunan, People’s Republic of China

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: HY XK YY. Performed the experiments: HY DF XK WW. Analyzed the data: HY DF XY YY. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: YH DF HS WW. Wrote the paper: HY HS CMN YY.