Avian Influenza Virus Strain Specificity in the Volatile Metabolome

Outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (AIV) result in significant financial losses and the death or depopulation of millions of domestic birds. Early and rapid detection and surveillance are needed to slow the spread of AIV and prevent its spillover to humans. The volatile metabolome (i.e., the pattern of volatile metabolites emitted by a living subject) represents one such source of health information that can be monitored for disease diagnosis. Indeed, dogs have been successfully trained to recognize patterns of "body odors" associated with many diseases. Because little is known regarding the mechanisms involved in the alteration of the volatile metabolome in response to health perturbation, questions still arise regarding the specificity, or lack thereof, of these alterations.

To address this concern, we experimentally infected twenty mallard ducks with one of two different strains of low-pathogenic AIV (ten ducks per strain) and collected cloacal swabs at various time points before and after infection.

Headspace analyses revealed that four volatiles were significantly altered following infection, with distinct profiles associated with each viral strain. The volatiles that differed between strains among post-infection sampling periods included ethylbenzyl ether (p = 0.00006), 2-phenoxyethanol (p = 0.00017), 2-hydroxybenzaldehyde (p = 0.00022), and 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one (p = 0.00034).

These findings underscore that AIV-induced changes to the volatile metabolome are strain-specific, emphasizing the need for disease-specific profiling in diagnostic development.