Improving Field Sample Collection from Wildlife
Field studies investigating disease in wildlife are hindered by a lack of standardized guidelines for collecting and preserving specimens that maximize accuracy when screening for pathogens. Such guidelines are common in medical diagnostics but are not often applied to wildlife field studies. There is a need for studies that make progress toward establishing similar guidelines for detecting infectious diseases in wildlife. Such approaches for specimen collection and preservation should be evaluated using both traditional targeted and metagenomic approaches, especially as the latter becomes increasingly utilized in disease ecology. Collecting swab samples is a popular approach for detecting pathogens in wildlife due to its noninvasive nature. Multiple options exist for both swab and preservative types available for sample collection. While each has its associated advantages, disadvantages, and intended uses, these have not been formally evaluated in field studies. I am comparing the performance of cotton, rayon, and foam swabs as well as the performance of viral transport media and Zymo DNA/RNA Shield in collecting field samples from Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) for pathogen detection. I evaluate performance by comparing DNA and RNA quality and yield, pathogen community composition using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and viral metagenomcs, and pathogen presence or absence using targeted PCR. |