Biodiversity indices and Random Forests reveal the potential for striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis) fecal microbial communities to function as a biomarker for oral rabies vaccination.

ABSTRACT: Wildlife disease surveillance and monitoring poses unique challenges when assessing rates of population vaccination, immunity, or infection prevalence. Non-invasively detected biomarkers can help reduce risk to both animal and field personnel during wildlife disease management activities. In this study, we investigated the utility of fecal microbiome data collected from captive striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) in predicting rabies virus vaccination and infection status. We sequenced the hypervariable region 4 (V4) of the bacterial 16S gene and estimated alpha and beta diversity across timepoints in three groups of skunks: vaccination then rabies virus infection, sham vaccination then rabies virus infection, and rabies virus infected without vaccination. Alpha diversity did not differ amo

SUBMITTER: Hopken MW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10443867 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature