About the Authors

Joanna S. Kuehn

Affiliation Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, United States of America

Patrick J. Gorden

Affiliation Department of Veterinary Diagnostics and Production Animal Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, United States of America

Daniel Munro

Affiliation Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, United States of America

Ruichen Rong

Affiliation Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, United States of America

Qunfeng Dong

Affiliations Department of Biological Sciences, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, United States of America, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, United States of America

Paul J. Plummer

Affiliations Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, United States of America, Department of Veterinary Diagnostics and Production Animal Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, United States of America

Chong Wang

Affiliation Department of Veterinary Diagnostics and Production Animal Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, United States of America

Gregory J. Phillips

gregory@iastate.edu

Affiliation Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors declare that Boehringer-Mannheim-Vetmedica (BIV) provided an unrestricted research fellowship for one of the authors (JSK). In this study, however, no BIV products were used or developed, no patents will be filed, and none of the authors are BIV employees, board members or consultants. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: JSK PJG PJP CW GJP. Performed the experiments: JSK PJG PJP. Analyzed the data: JSK PJG DM RR QD PJP CW GJP. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: JSK PJG DM RR QD PJP CW GJP. Wrote the paper: JSK PJG DM RR QD PJP CW GJP.