부산대학교 도서관

Simple Summary: American Foulbrood (AFB) is a disease of honey bee colonies caused by the spore-forming bacteria Paenibacillus larvae. Honey bee larvae become infected by consuming P. larvae spores in their food and subsequently die 9–12 days into development. The spores enter hives via bees taking honey from infected colonies or beekeepers inadvertently introducing P. larvae spores through contaminated hive ware, honey or pollen. In this study, we investigated whether detection dogs could be trained to recognise an odour pattern from P. larvae spores. The potential advantage of using dogs to detect P. larvae spore contamination is their ability to quickly work through large numbers of samples, such as working hives or empty brood boxes, facilitating more thorough inspections than would otherwise be possible. Positive indications could be checked with molecular testing and the items quarantined to prevent the further spread of AFB. However, as spores are metabolically inactive, it was unknown whether they would produce enough volatile compounds to be recognised by dogs. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine whether detection dogs could recognise an odour pattern from P. larvae spores in a controlled setting, as proof of concept for future field trials. Three experienced detection dogs underwent target-odour training using a series of laboratory-produced spore and control samples. Two of the dogs successfully completed training and were then tested in a series of six trials in an odour-detection carousel. These trials were carefully designed to avoid inadvertently giving cues to the dogs. For instance, a new set of samples was used and the dog trainer was unaware of the location of the spore samples. Both dogs correctly identified the single spore sample from the seven control samples in all trials (100% success rate), demonstrating that detection dogs can indeed recognise an odour from P. larvae spore samples. Spores of the bacteria Paenibacillus larvae play a central role in the transmission of American Foulbrood (AFB), a major disease of honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies. This study investigated whether trained detection dogs could recognise an odour pattern from P. larvae spore samples. Although dogs have previously been used to detect diseased larvae in colonies with AFB, this is the first time they have been investigated for detecting P. larvae spore samples. Given that spores are metabolically inactive, it was unknown whether the spore samples would produce enough volatile organic compounds to form an odour pattern that could be detected by dogs. Three dogs were trained to identify laboratory-produced P. larvae spore samples and were systematically desensitized to non-target odours with a series of control samples. Two of the dogs successfully completed training and were then tested by having each dog perform six searches in an odour-detection carousel with the trainer blinded to the location of the spore samples. In this high-stakes forced-choice test, each dog was asked to identify one new spore sample, containing approximately 93–265 million P. larvae spores, from seven control samples. Both dogs correctly identified the spore sample every time (100% success rate); the probability of this result occurring by chance was p = 0.0000038. Therefore, this study demonstrates that dogs can recognise an odour pattern from bacterial spore samples, in this case, P. larvae, and provides proof of concept for further investigation into the use of detection dogs to reduce the spread of AFB in beekeeping businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]