Berna Amalia Z, Pollock Tzvi Y, Liu Yang, Gibison Michelle, Mallikarjun Amritha, Logan Joey, Otto Cynthia M, Odom John Audrey R
Division of Infectious Diseases, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
School of Veterinary Medicine, Wildlife Futures Program, New Bolton Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
mSphere. 2025 Aug 18:e0035125. doi: 10.1128/msphere.00351-25.
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a universally fatal, transmissible prion disease affecting cervids. Primarily found among deer populations in North America, the disease has spread across the continent and made forays into Europe and Asia as well. Currently, accurate methods for detecting CWD infection require postmortem dissection of the lymph nodes and brainstem of affected animals. New, high-sensitivity methods of identifying CWD in living animals are sorely needed to help curb the spread of this devastating disease in captive and wild deer. Here, we use two-dimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCxGC-MS) to detect volatile organic compounds (VOCs) released from feces of white-tailed deer (WTD) for differentiation of the feces of CWD-negative and CWD-positive animals. We report 4 discrete VOCs in captive WTD and 10 discrete VOCs in wild WTD, with which we can discriminate CWD-positive and CWD-negative samples. Additionally, we evaluate the ability to detect biomarkers associated with CWD early during disease progression, by comparing samples from the early stage of infection with samples from the late stage and uninfected WTD. Our data suggest that detection of VOCs from the feces of WTD-both in captive and wild populations-can serve as a highly sensitive and non-invasive technique for identifying CWD infection in living animals.IMPORTANCEChronic wasting disease (CWD) is a deadly, transmissible prion disease of cervids. The spread of CWD is increasing among both wild and captive deer populations; however, the options to detect in living animals are limited. Diagnosing CWD early would allow more effective control over the spread between animals and contamination of the environment. Our research presents a method of determining CWD infection through the detection of disease-associated odor molecules in the feces of affected deer. This methodology lays the foundation for rapid, non-invasive diagnosis of CWD in living white-tailed deer, allowing for the development of tools to enhance control of this devastating disease's spread among both captive and wild populations.
慢性消耗病（CWD）是一种影响鹿科动物的普遍致命的传染性朊病毒病。该病主要在北美鹿群中发现，已蔓延至整个大陆，并已进入欧洲和亚洲。目前，检测CWD感染的准确方法需要对受感染动物的淋巴结和脑干进行死后解剖。迫切需要新的高灵敏度方法来识别活体动物中的CWD，以帮助遏制这种毁灭性疾病在圈养和野生鹿群中的传播。在这里，我们使用二维气相色谱-质谱联用仪（GCxGC-MS）检测白尾鹿（WTD）粪便中释放的挥发性有机化合物（VOC），以区分CWD阴性和CWD阳性动物的粪便。我们报告了圈养WTD中的4种离散VOC和野生WTD中的10种离散VOC，利用这些VOC我们可以区分CWD阳性和CWD阴性样本。此外，我们通过比较感染早期、晚期和未感染WTD的样本，评估在疾病进展早期检测与CWD相关生物标志物的能力。我们的数据表明，检测圈养和野生WTD粪便中的VOC可作为一种高度灵敏且非侵入性的技术，用于识别活体动物中的CWD感染。
重要性
慢性消耗病（CWD）是一种致命的鹿科动物传染性朊病毒病。CWD在野生和圈养鹿群中的传播正在增加；然而，活体动物检测方法有限。早期诊断CWD将有助于更有效地控制动物之间的传播和环境污染。我们的研究提出了一种通过检测受感染鹿粪便中与疾病相关的气味分子来确定CWD感染的方法。该方法为快速、非侵入性诊断活体白尾鹿的CWD奠定了基础，有助于开发工具以加强对这种毁灭性疾病在圈养和野生种群中传播的控制。
