About the Authors

Mark J Farnworth

Contributed equally to this work with: Mark J Farnworth, Ruoning Chen

Affiliation School of Biological Sciences, Plymouth University, Devon, United Kingdom

Ruoning Chen

Contributed equally to this work with: Mark J Farnworth, Ruoning Chen

Affiliation The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies and The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Rowena M. A. Packer

Affiliation Department of Clinical Science and Services, Royal Veterinary College, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom

Sarah M. A. Caney

Affiliation Vet Professionals Limited, Midlothian Innovation Centre, Pentlandfield, Roslin, Midlothian, United Kingdom

Danièlle A. Gunn-Moore

Danielle.Gunn-Moore@ed.ac.uk

Affiliation The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies and The Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

This research received funding in kind from Vet Professionals Limited. The funder provided support in the form of a salary for author SMAC and assisted with data collection via the funder website. The funder did not have any additional role in the study design, analyses, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Author DAG also provides ad hoc consultancy services via the funder. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the 'author contributions’ section. Other than above, no additional conflicts of interest arise from this work. These issues do not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: MJF RC RMAP SMAC DAG. Performed the experiments: RC DAG. Analyzed the data: MJF RMAP. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: SMAC DAG MJF RMAP. Wrote the paper: MJF RC RMAP DAG SMAC.