Statistical analysis
Statistica 6.1 (StatSoft, Inc., USA) was the software for statistical data analysis in this study. Means and standard deviations (M+s; normal distribution) or medians and quartiles (Me [Qi; Q3]; non-normal distribution), and absolute and relative frequencies and 95% confidence intervals (CI) represent descriptive statistics of quantitative traits. The Shapiro-Wilk test was a tool to assess the normality of quantitative variables. Nonparametric ANOVA (Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests) compared unrelated groups by quantitative and ordinal characteristics. The study involved multiple 