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Article History

Received: 20 April 2018

Accepted: 18 June 2018

First Online: 25 June 2018

Ethics approval

: All animal work has been conducted according to the national and international guidelines for animal welfare. The EDTA-blood sampling was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), the Lower Saxony state veterinary office at the Niedersächsisches Landesamt für Verbraucherschutz und Lebensmittelsicherheit, Oldenburg, Germany (registration number 33.19–42,502-05-16A042). In addition, hair root sampling of Swedish Shetland ponies was approved by the Ethics Committee for Animal Experiments in Uppsala, Sweden (number C121/14).

: Written informed approval was acquired from the horse owners and breeders to collect samples and measurements for current research, publication and further investigations.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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