PONE-D-23-43149Tissue distribution of Coxiella burnetii and antibody responses in macropods co-grazing with livestock in Queensland, AustraliaPLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

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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

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: 1. In this paper, the authors report results of a cross sectional survey of C. burnetii in macropods in Australia. Opportunistic sampling of 50 animals was done and different tissue samples were collected over a 3 day period.

2. The study seem to focus on i) diagnostics; comparing PCR detection frequencies from different sample types as well as suitability of three PCR markers for C. burnetii detection. The PCR results were also evaluated in comparison with serology results that were already reported somewhere else (ref 23). My criticism is that some of the principles of assay development/ optimisation were omitted. ii) The apparent sero detection as well as the molecular detection at animal level (referred to as apparent prevalence, with n=50 animals tested), including demographic data association. My criticism is that, the serology data seem to have been reported elsewhere and it is not clear why were these results included in this part of the study.

Reviewer #2: The manuscript "Tissue distribution of Coxiella burnetii and antibody responses in macropods co-grazing with livestock in Queensland, Australia" is well-written and describes the occurrence of Cb DNA in different organs/samples from kangaroos in Queensland. Moreover, blood samples were screened for antibodies.

I have only minor comments:

General comment: You talk about "prevalence" throughout the entire manuscript. In my opinion, you did not conduct a classical prevalence study. Your sample size follows a convenient sample approach. Therefore, I suggest using terms such as "detection rate" or "positivity rate" instead of "prevalence."

Line 66: "... promote transmission." Please insert a reference from the literature.

Line 120: Depending on the journal, but I suggest including the ethics statement at the end of the manuscript.

Lines 421-422: "... to occur more frequently than phase I." You cited very old literature. In recent years, newer findings have been published about the detection of Cb phase-specific antibodies in animals. Please revise the citations.

Table 1: Please include the English names of both kangaroo species.

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Dr Nomakorinte Gcebe

Reviewer #2: No

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Tissue distribution of Coxiella burnetii and antibody responses in macropods co-grazing with livestock in Queensland, Australia

PONE-D-23-43149R1

Dear Dr. Tolpinrud,

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.

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Kind regards,

Gianmarco Ferrara, PhD, MVD

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 #2: 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 #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #2: 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 #2: 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 #2: 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 #2: All comments have been addressed. The manuscript is ready for publication. No further modifications are necessary.

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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 #2: No

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