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Article History

Received: 30 August 2019

Accepted: 16 January 2020

First Online: 30 January 2020

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: This study has been performed in compliance with relevant guidelines (Directive 2010/63/EU). All procedures involving animals were approved by the Murcia University Bioethics Committee for Animal Research and followed the recommendations of the European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals used for Experimental and Other Scientific Purposes (Council of Europe, ETS no. 123). The verbal consent to participate of the farm owners consist on the explanation of the research purpose and the procedure of saliva sampling. Moreover, the methods used in the experimental phase were in accordance with the ARRIVE guidelines and regulations with the oral informed consent of the farm owners prior to their implementation. All animals used in the study continue its routine in the respective growing stages of the production system after the experimental phase. The official veterinary that perform the clinical examination was the person in charge of the treatment of diseased animals when necessary.

: Not applicable.

: Authors JS1 and PF were employed by company CefuS.A. The company provided support in the form of salaries for the two authors but did not have any additional role in the study funding, design and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests do not compromise this study. All other authors declare no competing interests.