SPADA Meeting Book

Comments Submitted

• "1.5 times the LOD" ‐ We should provide a ref for this level.   My guess is that other concentrations could be used, if  desired.  Is this from the SMPRs? (section 6.1‐line 663)  • Was it explained how to do this?  Is there a cut off to  determine which organisms should be tested?  Or just  anything that matches to some level? (section 6.1‐line 667‐ 668) • "reproducibility being built into" ‐ How is reproducibility  built in? (section 6.2‐line 677) • This whole section needs to be put in context of the rest of  the paper.  It needs a brief intro paragraph to set the stage.   (Then the following section could start as is, and wouldn’t  need a new starting sentence.) (section 7.0‐ line 730)

Comments Submitted

• This first section starts a bit abruptly in a new direction. It  might be helpful to have a starting sentence or paragraph to  place this discussion in the context of the rest of this  manuscript. (section 7.1‐ lines 731‐732). • It isn’t clear to me how this list ties into the “presence” and  “absence” – is it just a list of example methods to quantify  presence?  Please clarify (Glossary gg‐959‐962). Reviewer 3: • The validation guidelines for the assay should be referred and  indicated in the manuscript (section 6.2).