In order to guarantee comparability between specimens we used only skins of adult male specimens in spring or summer plumage collected from breeding areas.
Although we showed a co-infection rate of 71.4%, there were 8 (28.6%) of 28 patients with respiratory illness in whose specimens we detected only 1 virus, WUPyV.
To assess the prevalence of A. butzleri and Campylobacter jejuni in diarrheic stool specimens, we considered only stools with loose or liquid macroscopic aspect as diarrhea.
For immunohistochemical evaluation of all clinical specimens, we used only the mouse monoclonal antibody (mouse IgG1, clone 44, BD Transduction Laboratories™, Europe), which had been previously used successfully [ 10, 12, 18, 20].
For immunohistochemical evaluation of all 97 clinical specimen, we used only the monoclonal antibody (clone MOG/07), which has been successfully approved before (Weichert et al, 2004; Mezzanzanica et al, 2008).
Although sample size of normal breast tissues was rather small, also in a previous study analyzing methylation of the APC gene promoter in 27 normal breast tissues (obtained from reduction mammoplasty specimens), we observed methylation in only three samples [ 31].
From a further 20 specimens we were able to sequence only the shortest fragment L, accompanied by stochastic amplification of only one of the longer fragments in eleven of these specimens (Additional file 1: Table S1).
In addition, the saliva and PBMC specimens we assayed were obtained infrequently (only once every four months).
Note that we cannot estimate the volume flux of eruptions, as we only measure specimens from outcrops.
To ensure a relevant but non-occlusive thrombosis, we only selected specimens with a thrombosis >10% and <80% for further data evaluation (mean 40±21%).
