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. 2020 Jun 11;8:e9211. doi: 10.7717/peerj.9211

Figure 1. Experimental design.

Figure 1

We tested nest swabs collected from three test groups of nest boxes before, during and after the breeding season. Nest boxes were assigned to their respective group depending on their status during the breeding season, i.e. if they were unoccupied, or occupied by breeding P. elegans or P. eximius and their nestlings, and if any of the birds (parents or nestlings) occupying the nest box were BFDV-positive or BFDV-negative. Nest boxes for control group 1 were chosen randomly from boxes containing nests where we had complete BFDV data of blood and cloacal swabs for both parents, and complete blood data for all nestlings, and all these samples were BFDV-negative as determined by qPCR. Nest boxes for control group 2 had been selected as paired controls for active nests during the breeding season. Each of the three test groups consisted of 11 nest boxes. ‘BFDV+’ stands for BFDV-positive, ‘BFDV-‘ stands for BFDV-negative. ‘Birds’ refers to parents and/or nestlings.