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Article History

Received: 9 November 2017

Accepted: 31 January 2018

First Online: 14 March 2018

Author’s information

: LB – DVM. IS – MSc, PhD, Researcher at FMV. EC - DVM, Researcher at FMV. CC–MSc. LT - DVM, PhD, Full Professor at FMV. LC-DVM, PhD, Assistant Professor at FMV. MO – MSc, DVM, PhD, Assistant Professor at FMV.

: All animals were cared for according to the rules given by the current EU (Directive 2010/63/EC) and national (DL 113/2013) legislation and by the competent authority (Direção Geral de Alimentação e Veterinária, DGAV,) in Portugal. Only non-invasive samples were collected during routine procedures with consent of owners, and no ethics committee approval was needed. Trained veterinarians obtained all the samples, following standard routine procedures. No animal experiment has been performed in the scope of this research. Verbal informed consent was obtained from all the owners. As some of the participants in the study are unaccustomed to deal with forms, all the necessary information about the study was provided to all the participants before obtaining their consent.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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