Sampling
We swabbed the vagina in female lagomorphs using sterile polyester tipped swabs (AF.022, abf diagnostics, Kranzberg, Germany) and removed the corpus penis using a sterile scalpel blade in males. In animals with crusty lesions, we sampled the affected skin area using sterile scalpel blades. All samples were stored in 2 ml safe seal tubes (Sarstedt, Nürnbrecht, Germany) containing 500 µl of sterile filtered custom-made lysis buffer (10mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.0; 0.1M EDTA, pH 8.0; 0.5% SDS). Samples were frozen at -20 °C until further processing.