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

• Matthew W. Hopken ,

  Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

  * E-mail: matt.w.hopken@usda.gov

  Affiliations United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America, Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America

  https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3861-6153

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• Darby Gilfillan,

  Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliation Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America

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• Amy T. Gilbert,

  Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliation United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America

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• Antoinette J. Piaggio,

  Roles Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Resources, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliation United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America

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• Mikaela Samsel Hilton,

  Roles Investigation, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliation United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America

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• James Pierce,

  Roles Investigation, Methodology, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliation Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America

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• Bruce Kimball,

  Roles Conceptualization, Resources, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliation Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

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• Zaid Abdo

  Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

  Affiliation Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States of America

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