United States Department of Agriculture: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications
Accessibility Remediation
If you are unable to use this item in its current form due to accessibility barriers, you may request remediation through our remediation request form.
Document Type
Article
Date of this Version
2012
Citation
Sensors and Actuators B 171– 172 (2012) 588– 594; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2012.05.038
Abstract
We report here on a novel methodology in detecting Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) infection in cattle, based on identifying unique volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or a VOC profile in the breath of cattle. The study was conducted on an M. bovis-infected dairy located in southern Colorado, USA, and on two tuberculosis-free dairies from northern Colorado examined as negative controls. Gaschromatography/ mass-spectrometry analysis revealed the presence of 2 VOCs associated with M. bovis infection and 2 other VOCs associated with the healthy state in the exhaled breath of M. bovis-infected and not infected animals, yielding distinctly different VOC patterns for the two study groups. Based on these results, a nanotechnology-based array of sensors was then tailored for detection of M. bovis-infected cattle via breath. Our system successfully identified all M. bovis-infected animals, while 21% of the not infected animals were classified as M. bovis-infected. This technique could form the basis for a real-time cattle monitoring system that allows efficient and non-invasive screening for new M. bovis infections on dairy farms.