Peer-Review Record
Identification of a Novel Yersinia enterocolitica Strain from Bats in Association with a Bat Die-Off That Occurred in Georgia (Caucasus)
Microorganisms 2020, 8(7), 1000; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/microorganisms8071000
by
Tata Imnadze 1,2,†, Ioseb Natradze 3,†, Ekaterine Zhgenti 1, Lile Malania 1
, Natalia Abazashvili 1, Ketevan Sidamonidze 1, Ekaterine Khmaladze 1, Mariam Zakalashvili 1, Paata Imnadze 1,2, Ryan J. Arner 4, Vladimir Motin 5 and Michael Kosoy 6,*
, Natalia Abazashvili 1, Ketevan Sidamonidze 1, Ekaterine Khmaladze 1, Mariam Zakalashvili 1, Paata Imnadze 1,2, Ryan J. Arner 4, Vladimir Motin 5 and Michael Kosoy 6,*Reviewer 1:
Donald A. McFarlane
Donald A. McFarlane
Reviewer 2:
Anonymous
Microorganisms 2020, 8(7), 1000; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/microorganisms8071000
Submission received: 11 June 2020
/
Revised: 26 June 2020
/
Accepted: 1 July 2020
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Published: 4 July 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Bats in Infectiology Research—Novel Tools and New Findings)
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This is an interesting paper that addresses a little studied area - pathogenic bacterial infections in wild bats. Further research on healthy M. schreibersii would be informative.
1 trivial typo; under "Funding" the word "Thread" should be "Threat".
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
This is a well-written report on the occurrence of Y. enterocolitica in bats after a die-out in Georgia. The authors isolated bacteria from the gut of dead bats, identified Y. enterocolitica in some of the samples, and sequenced three isolates.
I have multiple smaller issues/items/questions:
- results line 161: if none of the greater horseshoe bats had the infection, is it then really legitimate to assume that there is a link between the (few) Y enterocolitica isolates and the observed die-off? I am not saying that this must be a wrong conclusion. But I am a bit disappointed that the "discussion" section does not pick up on this.
- results section 3.3 (phenotypic analysis): Please provide these results in a table. It is really difficult to read like this.
- Figure 3 would really benefit from an outgroup. I suggest that the authors add some Y pseudotuberculosis strains to the phylogeny?
- I am a bit unhappy with the results section where the presence/absence of known pathogenicity factors of Y enterocolitica is discussed (or not). What about sequence comparisons (of individual factors)? What about a table, where known factors are listed and their presence/absence in the bat strains is shown? Line 195 and around there has only a very brief (and disappointingly unexplained) list.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
