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Article History

Received: 30 January 2018

Accepted: 30 July 2018

First Online: 6 August 2018

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: All data are taken from internal databases derived from cases sent for diagnosis and treatment and analyzed anonymously in aggregated form. No additional tests for the purpose of the present research were done. The University of Liverpool ethics committee has approved the study with the number VREC442. Concerning all the other institutions involved in this international research project, according to each national regulation, and to the Animal Experimentation Ordinance of the “Comitato Etico Scientifico per la Sperimentazione Animale” of the University of Milan (EC decision 29 October 2012, renewed with the protocol n° 02-2016), there is no need of any permission to proceed with this retrospective study for which data have been already acquired as part of the clinical activity.

: Not applicable

: Josep Pastor is a member of the editorial board (Associate Editor) of BMC Veterinary Research. The authors declare that they have no other competing interests.

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