About the Authors

Emmalee J. Northrop

Roles Methodology, Writing – original draft

‡ These authors contributed equally to collection and analysis of data and in the preparation of the manuscript.

Affiliation Department of Animal Science, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, United States of America

Jerica J. J. Rich

Roles Methodology, Writing – original draft

‡ These authors contributed equally to collection and analysis of data and in the preparation of the manuscript.

Affiliation Department of Animal Science, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, United States of America

Jim R. Rhoades

Roles Funding acquisition

Affiliation IDEXX Laboratories, Westbrook, ME, United States of America

George A. Perry

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis

George.Perry@sdstate.edu

‡ These authors contributed equally to collection and analysis of data and in the preparation of the manuscript.

Affiliation Department of Animal Science, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors Emmalee Northrop, and Jerica Rich have no affiliations with any of the companies from which product was obtained to complete the research. Both Emmalee Northrop and Jerica Rich are wholly employed as graduate students at South Dakota State University. The author George Perry is wholly employed as a professor at South Dakota State University. His research program has been funded by funds from corporate sources including: Elanco Animal Health, Merial Animal Health, Novartis Animal Health, Pfizer Animal Health, Zoetis Animal Health, EstroTect, Purina, Zinpro, IDEXX laboratories, Select Sires, and ABS Global, and federal Sources including: USDA-NIFA, NSF, and USDA-SARE. George Perry has also served on a research advisory board for IDEXX laboratories. The Author Jim Rhodes is employed by IDEXX and which provided both of the blood tests used in these studies. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.