Use of volatile organic compounds in breath to detect swine infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex

Detection of diseases in wildlife is generally done through techniques such as hunter-kill surveys, road-kill surveys, or actively capturing and/or killing animals for serologic testing and /or postmortem examination. There is... [ view full abstract ]

Detection of diseases in wildlife is generally done through techniques such as hunter-kill surveys, road-kill surveys, or actively capturing and/or killing animals for serologic testing and /or postmortem examination. There is need for less invasive, less expensive techniques to remotely detect disease in wild populations. Analysis of volatile organic compounds in breath and other biological samples may be used to identify disease in individuals and populations and could provide a solution for remote surveillance of wildlife. Bovine tuberculosis is endemic at low prevalence in feral swine populations on the island of Molokai, Hawaii and threatens to spill back to domestic cattle on that island. In addition, bovine tuberculosis is present in cattle herds in Mexico, where it has potential to be transmitted to feral swine populations of the southern United States, as it has been transmitted to wild boar populations in several European countries. In order to evaluate the feasibility of using volatile organic compounds to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex infection in swine, we collected and analyzed breath volatile organic compounds from tuberculosis-positive and negative wild boar (n=57) in Doñana National Park, Spain, where the disease is endemic. In addition, we collected samples from feral swine (n=29) experimentally infected with M. bovis in a vaccine study. Preliminary results on breath from adult wild boar from Spain indicated presence of 61 compounds which were significantly different between bovine tuberculosis-positive (n=14) and negative (n=7) animals (p<0.05; t-test with Bonferroni correction). Four of these compounds were unique to bovine tuberculosis-positive wild boar and two compounds were found only in negative wild boar. Additional results will be presented as they are generated.