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Article History

Received: 28 October 2019

Accepted: 14 May 2020

First Online: 27 May 2020

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: Blood samples were taken as part of regular diagnostics on 6 farms that participated in the Slovenian Target Research Program CRP V4–1604 (Animal welfare including health of poultry and pigs in conventional and alternative housing systems). The ethics committee that approves and supervises the animal experiments is part of the Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Food Safety, Veterinary and Plant Protection under Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food. The content of the upper-mentioned research project was supervised by that administrative authority and all participants, procedures and aims of the program were constantly monitored by periodical reports. In accordance with Directive 2010/63/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes and Slovenian Animal Protection Law (Uradni list RS št. 38/2013 and 21/2018), non-experimental clinical veterinary practices and practices unlikely to cause pain, suffering distress or lasting harm equivalent to, or higher than that caused by the introduction of a needle, is not considered as an experiment on animals and any consent by national ethics committee is deemed unnecessary. This is stated in the document Resolution: 5-5-2020/3 issued by Committee for Animal Welfare of Veterinary faculty which also includes the discussion about the verbal and written consent of participation by the animal owners. A written consent of the farm owners were obtained additionally and are added to the Resolution. Verbal consent was obtained from all owners before entry on the farm, animal handling and sampling was given by all farm owners; the farm visits was under supervision of Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Food Safety, Veterinary and Plant Protection under Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food and described in the Slovenian Target Research Program CRP V4–1604 before the sampling itself.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.