Training the domestic ferret to discriminate odors associated with wildlife disease.

Glen J. Golden,Maryanne Opiekun,Talia Martin-Taylor,Bruce A. Kimball,Jianhong Zhou

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0259415

Glen J. Golden, Maryanne Opiekun + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259415

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Abstract

Recent avian influenza infection outbreaks have resulted in global biosecurity and economic concerns. Mallards are asymptomatic for the disease and can potentially spread AI along migratory bird flyways. In a previous study, trained mice correctly discriminated the health status of individual ducks on the basis of fecal odors when feces from post-infection periods were paired with feces from pre-infection periods. Chemical analyses indicated that avian influenza infection was associated with a marked increase of acetoin (3-hydroxy-2-butanone) in feces. In the current study, domesticated male ferrets (Mustela putorius furo) were trained to display a specific conditioned response (i.e. active scratch alert) in response to a marked increase of acetoin in a presentation of an acetoin:1-octen-3-ol solution. Ferrets rapidly generalized this learned response to the odor of irradiated feces from avian influenza infected mallards. These results suggest that a trained mammalian biosensor could be employed in an avian influenza surveillance program.

Highlights

Avian influenza virus (AIV) has been identified for its potential to disrupt the economy of the poultry industry through devastating losses of farmed fowl [1,2]
Trained mice have been shown to correctly discriminate the health status of individual ducks on the basis of fecal odors when feces from post-viral infection periods were paired with feces
To determine if trained ferrets (n = 6) would generalize the training they received with acetoin:octenol ratio solutions to actual fecal samples collected from low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) infected and noninfected mallards, we presented the ferrets with irradiated duck fecal samples from a previous study

Summary

Introduction

Avian influenza virus (AIV) has been identified for its potential to disrupt the economy of the poultry industry through devastating losses of farmed fowl [1,2]. Infected wild waterfowl and shorebirds are typically indistinguishable from uninfected animals in the field.[1,2,3]. Given the potential impacts of AIV to domestic animals and human health, it is imperative that new, reasonably cost-effective tools be developed for AI detection. There is growing and extensive evidence that certain diseases can alter human and animal bodily odors. It was shown that bodily secretions, such as urine, contain volatile odorants that undergo quality or intensity changes that are detectable by trained mice following events such as immunization, inflammation, or brain trauma [7,8]. Trained mice have been shown to correctly discriminate the health status of individual ducks on the basis of fecal odors when feces from post-viral infection periods were paired with feces

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