About the Authors

Xueqi Qu

Affiliation Institute of Animal Science, University of Bonn, Endenicher Allee 15, 53115 Bonn, Germany

Maren Pröll

Affiliation Institute of Animal Science, University of Bonn, Endenicher Allee 15, 53115 Bonn, Germany

Christiane Neuhoff

Affiliation Institute of Animal Science, University of Bonn, Endenicher Allee 15, 53115 Bonn, Germany

Rui Zhang

Affiliation Institute of Animal Science, University of Bonn, Endenicher Allee 15, 53115 Bonn, Germany

Mehmet Ulas Cinar

Affiliations Institute of Animal Science, University of Bonn, Endenicher Allee 15, 53115 Bonn, Germany, Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Erciyes University, 38039 Kayseri, Turkey

Md. Munir Hossain

Affiliations Institute of Animal Science, University of Bonn, Endenicher Allee 15, 53115 Bonn, Germany, Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Faculty of Animal Husbandry, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh-2202, Bangladesh

Dawit Tesfaye

Affiliation Institute of Animal Science, University of Bonn, Endenicher Allee 15, 53115 Bonn, Germany

Christine Große-Brinkhaus

Affiliation Institute of Animal Science, University of Bonn, Endenicher Allee 15, 53115 Bonn, Germany

Dessie Salilew-Wondim

Affiliation Institute of Animal Science, University of Bonn, Endenicher Allee 15, 53115 Bonn, Germany

Ernst Tholen

Affiliation Institute of Animal Science, University of Bonn, Endenicher Allee 15, 53115 Bonn, Germany

Christian Looft

Affiliation Institute of Animal Science, University of Bonn, Endenicher Allee 15, 53115 Bonn, Germany

Michael Hölker

Affiliation Institute of Animal Science, University of Bonn, Endenicher Allee 15, 53115 Bonn, Germany

Karl Schellander

Affiliation Institute of Animal Science, University of Bonn, Endenicher Allee 15, 53115 Bonn, Germany

Muhammad Jasim Uddin

judd@itw.uni-bonn.de

Affiliation Institute of Animal Science, University of Bonn, Endenicher Allee 15, 53115 Bonn, Germany

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: XQ KS MUC MJU. Performed the experiments: XQ MP RZ. Analyzed the data: XQ. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: DT. Wrote the paper: XQ MJU. Revised manuscript: XQ KS MMH CL DSW MJU. Supervised the overall work: MUC MJU. Contributed to sampling: CN MH. Contributed to primers: RZ. Statistical analysis: ET CG-B.