-->PONE-D-25-65727-->-->Spatial association of seabirds and aquatic birds with highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) outbreaks in Brazil: A nationwide ecological and statistical modeling approach-->-->PLOS One

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Clement Adebajo Meseko, DVM, PhD

Academic Editor

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

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

Reviewer #1: I Don't Know

Reviewer #2: Yes

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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

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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

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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: This manuscript outlines an interesting and timely study however, the manuscript is a bit hard to follow due to the highly technical nature of the modeling work. Can this be explained more clearly for a broader audience ? The figures are relevant and useful but could be improved with the addition of more informative figure legends. The conclusions are valid for the most part but there could be more discussion about the limitations of this sort of study. For example, the high number of HPAI positive samples from some species of sea bird might indicate that these species are highly susceptible and might not spread the virus far. Were the migratory patterns, behavior and flight distances of each species included in the models used ? Did the data available include the genetic profiles of the HPAI viruses isolated ? for example, we might like to know if the latter were the same in all species mentioned in the manuscript or if there was variation ? The latter is important when considering 'risk' and for generating models about which species are most impacted vs reservoir species spreading HPAI long distances such as (potentially) geese and ducks.

Reviewer #2: The manuscript “Spatial association of seabirds and aquatic birds with highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) outbreaks in Brazil: A nationwide ecological and statistical modeling approach” is a very interesting and valuable study to assess the distribution of animal (bird) species and HPAI in Brazil. It is very well conducted, methodologically sound and provides a lot of very useful information that can also be used for risk assessment approaches in the One Health context.

There are only a few comments that the authors could consider:

I miss in the conclusion section a paragraph how the results of this study can be directly utilised for guidance and policy on an immediate and medium/long term.

It is mentioned that the framework can be expanded across the South American Region or used in other countries to develop risk mapping frameworks, which is a reasonable proposal. The current analysis uses quite a large year range and susceptible bird species or infected migratory birds bringing the disease to specific areas might change over time or even between migratory years. How will you address this and is it planned to repeat the analysis using shorter/updated time periods to support risk assessments?

It is briefly mentioned in the discussion section, but a more detailed explanation in the introduction or methods section would help to improve the understanding about the underlying sampling, data collection and reporting. Please describe how the sampling is performed (deaths, active/passive surveillance, specialised teams/authorities or everybody,…) and how the data reporting and collection to the two repositories is happening to provide a better understanding of the data as well as the limitations and possible biases. Has the system how suspected animals have been sampled and/or reported changed during the period included in your study? How were sampling and reporting conducted during mass mortality events at sites? Please provide some more details.

Could there be a sampling bias towards specific species e.g. for which the species name might be better known, or which were better known by the people collecting the data?

Line 63: “a total of 19 countries and territories in the Americas reported 4,713 H5N1 avian influenza outbreaks to the World Health Organization (WHO),” - please check if you mean WHO or WOAH

Please check some typos in the manuscript:

Check typo in the title (modelling)

Line 337: Anser answer – check and revise to anser anser – likely an autocorrection error

Significative? Significant with P<…? Please check and correct wording.

Figures:

The figures 1,2 and 5 are very difficult to understand or read due to the low quality in the pdf (better in the downloadable tiff).

Fig 2, please be consistent and add text also to first bars

Fig 4, would be nicer to have as a map – the reader might not be familiar with the federal units in Brazil

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-->6. 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.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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<p>Spatial association of seabirds and aquatic birds with highly pathogenic avian influenza (H5N1) outbreaks in Brazil: A nationwide ecological and statistical modelling approach

PONE-D-25-65727R1

Dear Dr. Hernandez-Ortiz,

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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If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Clement Adebajo Meseko, DVM, 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 #1: All comments have been addressed

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 #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

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 #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

-->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

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

-->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: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: The revised version reads much clearer and all comments have been addressed. The results section has been rewritten and the policy issues covered.

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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:Dr Susan Catherine Cork

Reviewer #2: No

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