An All-in-One Concept of a Mobile System for On-Farm Swine Depopulation, Pathogen Inactivation, Off-Site Carcass Disposal, and Biosecure Cleanup
Mohamed Elfatih Hamad
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The strength of the project is that it addresses an important issue of farm biosecurity in animal agriculture.
The project is fundamentally sound and well designed and argued.
Minor corrections:
Line 129 - add 'pathogen inactivation' to read " followed by heat treatment and pathogen inactivation of two diseases of concern, that ...".
Line 130 - delete the word "virus" at the end of the sentence.
Line 214 - replace " externally facing proteins" with " coat proteins".
Line 318 - delete "of the" from the sentence to read " the outside temperature and the inside temperature in the trailer"
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Therefore, I only add very minor comments.
This study touches on an important aspect of animal infectious disease epidemiology. As the authors discuss in the manuscript, pressing situations require rapid decisions and appropriate responses. Although similar studies have been published in the past, this study is very important as it has the potential to make a significant contribution to emergency response.
The research objectives are clear and the significance of the research is evident. I think the importance of this study and the required background knowledge were adequately explained in the introduction. Only minor comments from me.
After the pathogen is sterilized by thermal treatment, how long do you assume it will take for the temperature in the mobile trailer to cool down and the mobile trailer can be moved? As a practical matter, I assume the entire process is to get the pigs inside the truck, depopulate them, thermal treatment, bury, and Disinfection of mobile trailer. I think this is one of the key factors to consider for practicality. It probably won't take that long, but I would suggest adding a few words in your manuscript.
Table 6: Estimated ASF or PRRS virus inactivated time?
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
