ReviewmBio2021
Preserve a Voucher Specimen! The Critical Need for Integrating Natural History Collections in Infectious Disease Studies.
Review in mBio, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled 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.
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.
Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Coronavirus sampling and surveillance in bats from 1996-2019: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Nature microbiology · 2023Pooled it
- Validating Wing Biopsies for Blood-Borne Pathogen Characterization in Bats.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Novel 20th century rotavirus alphagastroenteritidis strains identified in formalin-fixed and ethanol-preserved museum specimens.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- A holistic survey of small mammal diversity across an iconic Madrean Sky Island (Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona, USA).bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Leveraging Long-Term Ecological Research Initiatives Into the One Health Synthesis.Ecology and evolution · 2026Review
- Mismatched and underrepresented: bat-virus diversity and phylogeographic bias in experimental infection studies.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- Virome and Microbiome of Florida Bats Illuminate Viral Co-Infections, Dietary Viral Signals, and Gut Microbiome Shifts.Microorganisms · 2025Article
- Article
- A vision of human-AI collaboration for enhanced biological collection curation and research.Bioscience · 2025Article
- Phylogenetic and ecological drivers of the avian lung mycobiome and its potentially pathogenic component.Communications biology · 2025Article
- The research contribution of the Schistosomiasis Collection at the Natural History Museum (SCAN): highlights, challenges and future directions.Infectious diseases of poverty · 2025Review
- Legacy parasite collections reveal species-specific population genetic patterns among three species of zoonotic schistosomes.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Global natural history infrastructure requires international solidarity, support, and investment in local capacity.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- A 19th Century Stormwrecked Black-Capped Petrel From Vermont Offers Insight Into Historical Vagrancy Processes.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Pathogens and planetary change.Nature reviews. Biodiversity · 2025Article
- Article
- Studying bats using a One Health lens: bridging the gap between bat virology and disease ecology.Journal of virology · 2024Review
- Apparent absence of Trypanosoma cruzi in Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) from Texas, USA.Veterinary parasitology, regional studies and reports · 2024Article
- Pathogen prospecting of museums: Reconstructing malaria epidemiology.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
15 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Despite being nearly 10 months into the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic, the definitive animal host for SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), the causal agent of COVID-19, remains unknown. Unfortunately, similar problems exist for other betacoronaviruses, and no vouchered specimens exist to corroborate host species identification for most of these pathogens. This most basic information is critical to the full understanding and mitigation of emerging zoonotic diseases. To overcome this hurdle, we recommend that host-pathogen researchers adopt vouchering practices and collaborate with natural history collections to permanently archive microbiological samples and host specimens. Vouchered specimens and associated samples provide both repeatability and extension to host-pathogen studies, and using them mobilizes a large workforce (i.e., biodiversity scientists) to assist in pandemic preparedness. We review several well-known examples that successfully integrate host-pathogen research with natural history collections (e.g., yellow fever, hantaviruses, helminths). However, vouchering remains an underutilized practice in such studies. Using an online survey, we assessed vouchering practices used by microbiologists (e.g., bacteriologists, parasitologists, virologists) in host-pathogen research. A much greater number of respondents permanently archive microbiological samples than archive host specimens, and less than half of respondents voucher host specimens from which microbiological samples were lethally collected. To foster collaborations between microbiologists and natural history collections, we provide recommendations for integrating vouchering techniques and archiving of microbiological samples into host-pathogen studies. This integrative approach exemplifies the premise underlying One Health initiatives, providing critical infrastructure for addressing related issues ranging from public health to global climate change and the biodiversity crisis.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.