PONE-D-22-34908Non-invasive specimen collections for Mycobacterium tuberculosis detection in free-ranging long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis)PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Malaivijitnond,

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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: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: I Don't Know

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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

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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

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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: The authors presented quite a significant problem related to the collection of diagnostic material from free-living animals, especially those belonging to the group of primates. Due to the numerous restrictions related to the violation of the welfare of free-living animals and the reduction of their stress, and, on the other hand, the need to quickly identify zoonotic pathogens, the non-invasive method of sampling and its use in MTBC diagnostics seems very applicable and I certainly recommend the article for publication. However, a few clarifications still need to be made, even though the manuscript has already undergone initial revisions:

It is not clear why the material was taken again after 5 days using the invasive method. Isn't this too short a time for animals to fully recover after pharmacological treatment? Please justify such a short time as well as repeating the collection with a non-invasive method on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th day.

I also believe that the method of collecting material from free-living animals populations is described too generally. Animal populations were studied, but in what space? It is hard to imagine that, as in the case of animals kept in cages, faeces were collected immediately after defecation or a rope was found with the certainty that it had been chewed by the animal - please specify this part of the experiment.

Were the results of the research supported by microbiological culture or were they based only on the results of molecular tests? If not, please explain in the text why.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: ANETA NOWAKIEWICZ

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Non-invasive specimen collections for Mycobacterium tuberculosis detection in free-ranging long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis)

PONE-D-22-34908R1

Dear Dr. Malaivijitnond,

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,

Ricardo Santos

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 #1: 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 #1: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: 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 #1: 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 #1: 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 #1: I have no any other comments. I recommend the manuscript for publication in its current form because the authors have taken into account all my comments. In its current form, the manuscript sounds good and clearly describes a non-invasive methodology for collecting material from free-living animals, which may have an application character. This enables potential monitoring of the occurrence of zoonotic diseases, which is extremely important in terms of assessing the risk to public health

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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 #1: Yes: Aneta Nowakiewicz

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