Preprint Communication Version 2 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Virological Sampling of Inaccessible Wildlife with Drones

Jemma L. Geoghegan
* ORCID logo ,
Vanessa Pirotta
,
Erin Harvey
,
Alastair Smith
,
Jan P. Buchmann
ORCID logo ,
Martin Ostrowski
,
John-Sebastian Eden
ORCID logo ,
Robert Harcourt
,
Edward C. Holmes
ORCID logo
Version 1 : Received: 12 May 2018 / Approved: 14 May 2018 / Online: 14 May 2018 (08:25:40 CEST)
Version 2 : Received: 30 May 2018 / Approved: 30 May 2018 / Online: 30 May 2018 (07:37:39 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Geoghegan, J.L.; Pirotta, V.; Harvey, E.; Smith, A.; Buchmann, J.P.; Ostrowski, M.; Eden, J.-S.; Harcourt, R.; Holmes, E.C. Virological Sampling of Inaccessible Wildlife with Drones. Viruses 2018, 10, 300. Geoghegan, J.L.; Pirotta, V.; Harvey, E.; Smith, A.; Buchmann, J.P.; Ostrowski, M.; Eden, J.-S.; Harcourt, R.; Holmes, E.C. Virological Sampling of Inaccessible Wildlife with Drones. Viruses 2018, 10, 300.

Abstract

There is growing interest in characterizing the viromes of diverse mammalian species, particularly in the context of disease emergence. However, little is known about virome diversity in aquatic mammals, in part due to difficulties in sampling. We characterized the virome of the exhaled breath (or blow) of the Eastern Australian humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae). To achieve an unbiased survey of virome diversity a meta-transcriptomic analysis was performed on 19 pooled whale blow samples collected via a purpose-built Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV, or drone) approximately 3km off the coast of Sydney, Australia during the 2017 winter annual northward migration from Antarctica to northern Australia. To our knowledge, this is the first time that UAVs have been used to sample viruses. Despite the relatively small number of animals surveyed in this initial study, we identified six novel virus species from five viral families. This work demonstrates the potential of UAVs in studies of virus disease, diversity, and evolution.

Keywords

whale; virome; drone; mammalian host; virosphere

Subject

Biology and Life Sciences, Animal Science, Veterinary Science and Zoology

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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