Non-Invasive Method to Detect Infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex in Wild Boar by Measurement of Volatile Organic Compounds Obtained from Feces with an Electronic Nose System

• Published in: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 21; no. 2; p. 584
• Main Authors: de Jesús Beleño-Sáenz, Kelvin, Cáceres-Tarazona, Juan Martín, Nol, Pauline, Jaimes-Mogollón, Aylen Lisset, Gualdrón-Guerrero, Oscar Eduardo, Durán-Acevedo, Cristhian Manuel, Barasona, Jose Angel, Vicente, Joaquin, Torres, María José, Welearegay, Tesfalem Geremariam, Österlund, Lars, Rhyan, Jack, Ionescu, Radu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 15.01.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Animals; Animals, Wild; Biomarkers; bovine tuberculosis; Cattle; chemical gas sensors; diagnosis; Electronic Nose; Electronic noses; Feces; Female; Gold; gold nanoparticles; Hogs; Humans; Infections; Livestock; Male; Metal Nanoparticles; Mycobacterium bovis; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Nanoparticles; National parks; organic ligands; Sensors; Spain; Sus scrofa; Swine; Tuberculosis; Tuberculosis - diagnosis; Tuberculosis - veterinary; VOCs; Volatile Organic Compounds; Wild animals; Wildlife; Spain; Hungary; France; United States > US; Germany; bovine tuberculosis; chemical gas sensors; Mycobacterium bovis; organic ligands; gold nanoparticles; volatile organic compounds; diagnosis; Sus scrofa; feces
• ISSN: 1424-8220; 1424-8220
• DOI: 10.3390/s21020584

More effective methods to detect bovine tuberculosis, caused by , in wildlife, is of paramount importance for preventing disease spread to other wild animals, livestock, and human beings. In this study, we analyzed the volatile organic compounds emitted by fecal samples collected from free-ranging wild boar captured in Doñana National Park, Spain, with an electronic nose system based on organically-functionalized gold nanoparticles. The animals were separated by the age group for performing the analysis. Adult (>24 months) and sub-adult (12-24 months) animals were anesthetized before sample collection, whereas the juvenile (<12 months) animals were manually restrained while collecting the sample. Good accuracy was obtained for the adult and sub-adult classification models: 100% during the training phase and 88.9% during the testing phase for the adult animals, and 100% during both the training and testing phase for the sub-adult animals, respectively. The results obtained could be important for the further development of a non-invasive and less expensive detection method of bovine tuberculosis in wildlife populations.