About the Authors

Tieshan Jiang

txj001@uark.edu

Affiliation Department of Poultry Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States of America

Rabindra K. Mandal

Affiliation Department of Poultry Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States of America

Robert F. Wideman Jr.

Affiliations Department of Poultry Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States of America, Cell and Molecular Biology Program, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States of America

Anita Khatiwara

Current address: US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), College Park, Maryland, United States of America

Affiliation Cell and Molecular Biology Program, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States of America

Igal Pevzner

Affiliation Cobb-Vantress Inc., Siloam Springs, Arkansas, United States of America

Young Min Kwon

Affiliations Department of Poultry Science, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States of America, Cell and Molecular Biology Program, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States of America

Competing Interests

IP is an employee of Cobb-Vantress Inc., whose company funded this study. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. 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: RFW IP YMK. Performed the experiments: TJ RFW AK. Analyzed the data: TJ RKM RFW YMK. Wrote the paper: TJ RFW YMK.