Leland, B. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2024

Comparing efficiencies of population control methods for responding to foreign animal disease threats in wild pigs

Introductions of foreign animal diseases (FADs) into free-ranging wildlife can be difficult to control and devastating for domestic livestock trade. Combating a new FAD introduction in wildlife with an emergency response requires quickly limiting spread of the disease by intensely removing wild animals and recovering their carcasses for proper disposal. In the case of African swine fever virus (ASFv) in wild pigs (Sus scrofa), which has been spreading in many regions of the world, there is little information on the time- and cost-efficiency of methods for intensively and consistently removing wild pigs and recovering carcasses in an emergency response scenario. We compared the efficiencies of aerial operations, trapping, an experimental toxic bait, and ground shooting in northcentral Texas, USA during two months in 2023. Removing and recovering carcasses of wild pigs averaged a rate of 0.15 wild pigs/person hour and cost an average of $233.04/wild pig ($USD 2023) across all four methods. Aerial operations required the greatest initial investment but subsequently was the most time- and cost-efficient, costing an average of $7,266 to incrementally reduce the population by 10% including recovering carcasses. Aerial operations required a ground crew of [~]7 people/helicopter to recover carcasses. Costs for reducing the population of wild pigs using trapping were similar, although took 13.5 times longer to accomplish. A benefit of trapping was carcass recovery was incorporated. Toxic baiting was less efficient because carcass recovery required substantial time, and we removed very few wild pigs with ground shooting in this landscape. We recommend combining aerial and trapping methodologies to remove wild pigs and their carcasses efficiently and effectively during a FAD response. Overall, our findings can inform the preparation of resources, personnel needs, and deployment readiness for FAD responses involving wild pigs.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2021

A framework for evaluating edited cell libraries created by massively parallel genome engineering

Genome engineering methodologies are transforming biological research and discovery. Approaches based on CRISPR technology have been broadly adopted and there is growing interest in the generation of massively parallel edited cell libraries. Comparing the libraries generated by these varying approaches is challenging and researchers lack a common framework for defining and assessing the characteristics of these libraries. Here we describe a framework for evaluating massively parallel libraries of edited genomes based on established methods for sampling complex populations. We define specific attributes and metrics that are informative for describing a complex cell library and provide examples for estimating these values. We also connect this analysis to generic phenotyping approaches, using either pooled (typically via a selection assay) or isolate (often referred to as screening) phenotyping approaches. We approach this from the context of creating massively parallel, precisely edited libraries with one edit per cell, though the approach holds for other types of modifications, including libraries containing multiple edits per cell (combinatorial editing). This framework is a critical component for evaluating and comparing new technologies as well as understanding how a massively parallel edited cell library will perform in a given phenotyping approach.

genomics↗