Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31851671›Full record

ArticlePloS one2019

Food from faeces: Evaluating the efficacy of scat DNA metabarcoding in dietary analyses.

David Thuo, Elise Furlan, Femke Broekhuis, Joseph Kamau, Kyle Macdonald, Dianne M Gleeson

Erratum issuedOpen access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PloS one, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 34 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
34citing papers in PubMed
4.1field-weighted citation impact, top 6% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

34 citing papers in PubMed, 64 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Diet and Prey Preference of Tigers (Ecology and evolution · 2026
    Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Review
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Dietary Response of Black-Backed Jackals (Ecology and evolution · 2025
    Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. DNA metabarcoding the diet ofCurrent zoology · 2023
    Article
  20. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.

David ThuoInstitute for Applied Ecology, University of Canberra, Bruce, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.ORCID 0000-0003-0067-6580
Elise FurlanInstitute for Applied Ecology, University of Canberra, Bruce, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
Femke BroekhuisKenya Wildlife Trust, Nairobi, Kenya.ORCID 0000-0002-4216-8819
Joseph KamauMolecular Biology Laboratory, Institute of Primate Research, Nairobi, Kenya.
Kyle MacdonaldNational Zoo and Aquarium, Canberra, Yarralumla, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
Dianne M GleesonInstitute for Applied Ecology, University of Canberra, Bruce, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
Kenya Wildlife Service · KEUniversity of Canberra · AUAustralia Zoo · AUUniversity of Nairobi · KE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Scat DNA metabarcoding is increasingly being used to track the feeding ecology of elusive wildlife species. This approach has greatly increased the resolution and detection success of prey items contained in scats when compared with other classical methods. However, there have been few studies that have systematically tested the applicability and reliability of this approach to study the diet of large felids species in the wild. Here we assessed the effectiveness of this approach in the cheetah Acinonyx jubatus. We tested how scat degradation, meal size, prey species consumed and feeding day (the day a particular prey was consumed) influenced prey DNA detection success in captive cheetahs. We demonstrated that it is possible to obtain diet information from 60-day old scats using genetic approaches, but the efficiency decreased over time. Probability of species-identification was highest for food items consumed one day prior to scat collection and the probability of being able to identify the species consumed increased with the proportion of the prey consumed. Detection success varied among prey species but not by individual cheetah. Identification of prey species using DNA detection methods from a single consumption event worked for samples collected between 8 and 72 hours post-feeding. Our approach confirms the utility of genetic approaches to identify prey species in scats and highlight the need to account for the systematic bias in results to control for possible scat degradation, feeding day, meal size and prey species consumed especially in the wild-collected scats.

Indexed as

AcinonyxAnimalsDietDNADNA Barcoding, TaxonomicFecesDNA

Identifiers

PMID31851671
PMCPMC6980833
OpenAlexW2994718159

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.