Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Analysis For Disease Detection: Proof Of Principle For Field Studies Detecting Paratuberculosis And Brucellosis

A proof of concept investigation was performed to demonstrate that two independent infectious diseases of cattle result in different patterns of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the headspace of serum samples detectable using an electronic nose (e-nose). A total of 117 sera from cattle naturally infected with Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (paraTB, n = 43) or Brucella sp. (n = 26) and sera from corresponding control animals (n = 48) were randomly and analysed blind to infection status using a ST214 e-nose (Scensive Ltd, Leeds, UK). Samples were collected under non-standardised conditions on different farms from the UK (brucellosis) and Germany (paraTB).

The e-nose could differentiate the sera from brucellosis infected, paraTB infected and healthy animals at the population level, but the technology used was not suitable for determination of the disease status of individual animals. Nevertheless, the data indicate that there are differences in the sensor responses depending on the disease status, and therefore, it shows the potential of VOC analysis from serum headspace samples for disease detection.