Noninvasive Genetic Assessment Is an Effective Wildlife Research Tool When Compared with Other Approaches

Wildlife research has been indispensable for increasing our insight into ecosystem functioning as well as for designing effective conservation measures under the currently high rates of biodiversity loss. Genetic and genomic analyses might be able to yield the same information on, e.g., population s...

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Autor principal:	Miriam A. Zemanova
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	animal welfare diet analysis DNA sampling health monitoring invasive research population size estimation Genetics QH426-470
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/3a8eaa7aabc640f3a59eea15bf566be0
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:3a8eaa7aabc640f3a59eea15bf566be02021-11-25T17:40:35ZNoninvasive Genetic Assessment Is an Effective Wildlife Research Tool When Compared with Other Approaches10.3390/genes121116722073-4425https://doaj.org/article/3a8eaa7aabc640f3a59eea15bf566be02021-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/2073-4425/12/11/1672https://doaj.org/toc/2073-4425Wildlife research has been indispensable for increasing our insight into ecosystem functioning as well as for designing effective conservation measures under the currently high rates of biodiversity loss. Genetic and genomic analyses might be able to yield the same information on, e.g., population size, health, or diet composition as other wildlife research methods, and even provide additional data that would not be possible to obtain by alternative means. Moreover, if DNA is collected non-invasively, this technique has only minimal or no impact on animal welfare. Nevertheless, the implementation rate of noninvasive genetic assessment in wildlife studies has been rather low. This might be caused by the perceived inefficiency of DNA material obtained non-invasively in comparison with DNA obtained from blood or tissues, or poorer performance in comparison with other approaches used in wildlife research. Therefore, the aim of this review was to evaluate the performance of noninvasive genetic assessment in comparison with other methods across different types of wildlife studies. Through a search of three scientific databases, 113 relevant studies were identified, published between the years 1997 and 2020. Overall, most of the studies (94%) reported equivalent or superior performance of noninvasive genetic assessment when compared with either invasive genetic sampling or another research method. It might be also cheaper and more time-efficient than other techniques. In conclusion, noninvasive genetic assessment is a highly effective research approach, whose efficacy and performance are likely to improve even further in the future with the development of optimized protocols.Miriam A. ZemanovaMDPI AGarticleanimal welfarediet analysisDNA samplinghealth monitoringinvasive researchpopulation size estimationGeneticsQH426-470ENGenes, Vol 12, Iss 1672, p 1672 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	animal welfare diet analysis DNA sampling health monitoring invasive research population size estimation Genetics QH426-470
spellingShingle	animal welfare diet analysis DNA sampling health monitoring invasive research population size estimation Genetics QH426-470 Miriam A. Zemanova Noninvasive Genetic Assessment Is an Effective Wildlife Research Tool When Compared with Other Approaches
description	Wildlife research has been indispensable for increasing our insight into ecosystem functioning as well as for designing effective conservation measures under the currently high rates of biodiversity loss. Genetic and genomic analyses might be able to yield the same information on, e.g., population size, health, or diet composition as other wildlife research methods, and even provide additional data that would not be possible to obtain by alternative means. Moreover, if DNA is collected non-invasively, this technique has only minimal or no impact on animal welfare. Nevertheless, the implementation rate of noninvasive genetic assessment in wildlife studies has been rather low. This might be caused by the perceived inefficiency of DNA material obtained non-invasively in comparison with DNA obtained from blood or tissues, or poorer performance in comparison with other approaches used in wildlife research. Therefore, the aim of this review was to evaluate the performance of noninvasive genetic assessment in comparison with other methods across different types of wildlife studies. Through a search of three scientific databases, 113 relevant studies were identified, published between the years 1997 and 2020. Overall, most of the studies (94%) reported equivalent or superior performance of noninvasive genetic assessment when compared with either invasive genetic sampling or another research method. It might be also cheaper and more time-efficient than other techniques. In conclusion, noninvasive genetic assessment is a highly effective research approach, whose efficacy and performance are likely to improve even further in the future with the development of optimized protocols.
format	article
author	Miriam A. Zemanova
author_facet	Miriam A. Zemanova
author_sort	Miriam A. Zemanova
title	Noninvasive Genetic Assessment Is an Effective Wildlife Research Tool When Compared with Other Approaches
title_short	Noninvasive Genetic Assessment Is an Effective Wildlife Research Tool When Compared with Other Approaches
title_full	Noninvasive Genetic Assessment Is an Effective Wildlife Research Tool When Compared with Other Approaches
title_fullStr	Noninvasive Genetic Assessment Is an Effective Wildlife Research Tool When Compared with Other Approaches
title_full_unstemmed	Noninvasive Genetic Assessment Is an Effective Wildlife Research Tool When Compared with Other Approaches
title_sort	noninvasive genetic assessment is an effective wildlife research tool when compared with other approaches
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/3a8eaa7aabc640f3a59eea15bf566be0
work_keys_str_mv	AT miriamazemanova noninvasivegeneticassessmentisaneffectivewildliferesearchtoolwhencomparedwithotherapproaches
_version_	1718412097052737536

Noninvasive Genetic Assessment Is an Effective Wildlife Research Tool When Compared with Other Approaches

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