About the Authors

Cristianne M. M. Cordeiro

Affiliation Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Hamed Esmaili

Affiliation Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

George Ansah

Affiliation ISA North America, Division of Hendrix Genetics, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada

Maxwell T. Hincke

mhincke@uottawa.ca

Affiliation Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Competing Interests

GA is an employee of Hendrix Genetics. The material contribution of Hendrix Genetics to the research was the provision of blood samples and eggs from specific birds in their flocks. There are no further 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: CMMC GA MTH. Performed the experiments: CMMC HE. Analyzed the data: CMMC HE GA MTH. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MTH GA. Wrote the paper: CMMC HE GA MTH.