From roads to biobanks: Roadkill animals as a valuable source of genetic data.

ABSTRACT: To protect biodiversity we must understand its structure and composition including the bacteria and microparasites associated with wildlife, which may pose risks to human health. However, acquiring this knowledge often presents challenges, particularly in areas of high biodiversity where there are many undescribed and poorly studied species and funding resources can be limited. A solution to fill this knowledge gap is sampling roadkill (animals that die on roads as a result of collisions with circulating vehicles). These specimens can help characterize local wildlife and their associated parasites with fewer ethical and logistical challenges compared to traditional specimen collection. Here we test this approach by analyzing 817 tissue samples obtained from 590 roadkill vertebrate specimen

SUBMITTER: Coba-Males MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10703236 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature