“…Of the 27 primer sets analysed, 81.4% returned a higher number of target-specific results than non-target sequences whilst four primer pairs returned a significantly higher number of non-target hits than target-specific sequences ( Supplementary Table S4 ). All non-target sequences identified that were either same genus and species as target but different strain, or a different genus but same target species (bovine) but a different bacterial species had product lengths below 1,000, potentially resulting in non-specifically amplification.Where primer pairs were identifying organisms of a completely different genus and species to the intended target, which was the case for reported sequences for M. haemolytica LktD ( Loy et al, 2018 ; Goto et al, 2020 ), LktA ( Thanthrige-Don et al, 2018 ) and artJ-lktC ( Zhang et al, 2017 ); M. bovis uvrC ( Andres-Lasheras et al, 2020 ) and UvrC ( Szacawa et al, 2015 ); P. multocida kmt-1 ( Kishimoto et al, 2017 ), hyaD ( Nefedchenko et al, 2016 ), ecbJ ( Nefedchenko et al, 2016 ) and fcbD ( Nefedchenko et al, 2016 ) all non-target products had lengths above 1,000 and therefore would be unlikely to results in non-specific amplification ( Supplementary Table S4 ) if the differential target was present in a mixed clinical sample.…”