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You’ve probably seen dogs working security at airports, [--1--] for drugs, bombs and [--2--]. Now our best-friend biosensors might have a new task: ferretting out the scent of bird flu.
And they may not be alone on the job. Researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Monell Chemical Senses Center trained mice to identify [--3--] from animals infected with bird flu. The work was presented at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston.
The scientists trained six mice to run a maze in search of [--4--]. Every time they found the right feces, they got a drink of water. The mice learned to choose infected over noninfected duck feces about 90 percent of the time.
The researchers believe the implications could be [--5--]. First, bird flu apparently leaves an odor imprint on bird feces, and so dogs—and even mice—could be trained to recognize it. Second, scientists might be able to isolate the cocktail of compounds that gives off the odor to develop lab instruments or automated field detectors. Until then, we may find four-legged sensors, large and small, sniffing away to protect us from a bird-borne epidemic.
sniffing contraband food duck droppings infected feces twofold
你可能見過機場的安防狗，它們用鼻子檢測毒品、炸彈和違禁的食品。最近，我們這些最好的生物傳感器朋友們貌似接到一個新的任務(wù)：搜索禽流感的味道。 它們不會勢單力薄的。美國農(nóng)業(yè)部門和莫奈兒化學(xué)感官中心的研究人員訓(xùn)練老鼠們來辨認(rèn)感染了禽流感的鴨子排泄物。這項工作在波士頓召開的美國化學(xué)協(xié)會的全國會議上提出。 科學(xué)家訓(xùn)練六只小老鼠走迷宮，以期找出感染的排泄物。每一次它們找出正確的排泄物，就能得到一口水做獎賞。小老鼠們學(xué)會了在90%沒有感染的鴨子排泄物中篩選出感染過的。 研究人員認(rèn)為此項結(jié)果有兩重含義。首先，顯然，禽流感在禽類糞便上留下了氣味，于是狗兒們，甚至小老鼠們訓(xùn)練后都可以辨別出來。其次，科學(xué)家們可以從化合物中將散發(fā)氣味的混合物隔離出來用來改良實驗室儀器或自動探測器。到那時，我們就可以發(fā)現(xiàn)這些大大小小的四條腿傳感器們吸出鳥類的疫病保護我們。