PONE-D-23-04863Epidemiology and molecular characterization of Feline Panleukopenia Virus from suspected domestic cats in BangladeshPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Nazir,

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PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Partly

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: I Don't Know

Reviewer #3: No

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: No

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: In this manuscript, the authors investigated the epidemiology of FPLV in Bangladesh and gave a phylogenetic analysis of FPLV VP2 gene. However, initial assessment indicated that this study lacks novelty and I have some major concerns and suggestions that need to be addressed.

1. In my opinion, as an epidemiological investigation and analysis, the number of samples collected in this study is not enough, and the samples were only collected from the pet hospitals. It is preferable to be able to collect samples from stray cats as well as cat breeding farms for testing to make the analysis more comprehensive.

2. The authors detected the FPLV from the hospital samples, furthermore, the prevalence of other pathogens and the co-infections with FPLV would be better mentioned.

3. It would be better to sequence the complete sequence of VP2 gene.

4. The authors detected samples from the suspected cat for FPLV, please provide more information on subsequent treatment and prognosis of the Feline Panleukopenia.

Reviewer #2: Overall I think this is a well written manuscript about a common disease in a location where not much is known about prevalence. I think that the authors are missing an opportunity to discuss in greater detail what I see as the most significant finding; that this has a significant link to veterinary visits. I would like to see a more expanded discussion about the need for increased biosecurity in regards to veterinary visits. Otherwise, well done.

Reviewer #3: The authors explore" Epidemiology and molecular characterization of Feline Panleukopenia Virus from suspected domestic cats in Bangladesh". However, the study was needed to some modifications as following to be ready for publications. After reading I have some concerns itemized below:

1-In introduction section: please rewrite the family of FLP (carnivore protoparvovirus-1) in italic form.

2-Did the author take rectal swab samples or fecal samples? Please clarify this information throughout the entire manuscript.

3- please, added the fig 1,……….and so on without title in the text, but the remaining details added in the right site.

4- Please, remove the last row in the table 1.

5- Please, added the word (month) near to 6, 7, 24 in the table 2.

6-Is the virus isolate (THBAU2) identical to FLP isolate from Egypt or Thailand?

7- Is the ladder 100kbp or 1kbp? From which company was it made?

8- Complete sequencing of VP2 gene is required In order to stand for certain results.

9-Virus isolation is important for diagnosis of FPL virus infection as well as fundamental studies of FPL, so, the authors will need to isolate the virus from cats.

10-The all manuscript is needed to grammar and spelling checker. Please check the entire manuscript for grammatical errors& I advise the revising for English Language by a native English speaker.

11-The statistical evaluation of the approach is little bit low.

12-Discussion part is very weak and has a great lack of evidence and scientific explanation and can’t be accepted in that way. Interpretate your results according to the evidence based knowledge and discuss it more.

13- Write your conclusion clearly after the discussion part.

14- The PCR figure is suspicious.

15- The phylogenetic analysis figure is hesitated.

With my best wishes

Fatma Abdallah

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Michael Nappier

Reviewer #3: No

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Epidemiology and molecular characterization of Feline Panleukopenia Virus from suspected domestic cats in selected Bangladesh regions

PONE-D-23-04863R1

Dear Dr. Nazir,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Sherin Reda Rouby, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #3: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #3: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #3: Yes

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #3: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #3: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #3: The modifications made by the authors made the research paper ready for international publication, and this is from my professional point of view.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #3: No

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