Volatile organic chemical analyser (eNose) diagnosis of dogs naturally infected with visceral leishmaniasis in Brazil

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in Brazil is a neglected vector-borne tropical parasitic disease that is responsible for several thousand human deaths every year. The numbers of cases more than doubled between 1990 and 2016. Transmission occurs when sand flies become infected after feeding on infected dogs (the reservoir host) and then subsequently on humans. A major component of the VL control effort is the identification and euthanasia of infected dogs to remove them as a source of infection. Rapid, accurate identification of infected dogs would be key to this strategy. Here we demonstrate the potential of a volatile organic chemical analyser (eNose) to rapidly and accurately identify dogs infected with Leishmania infantum parasites. The eNose could discriminate between the odours present in the hair of infected and uninfected dogs with greater than 95% sensitivity and 95% specificity. The device was sufficiently sensitive to be able to identify infected dogs even when parasite loads in the circulating blood were very low. Future improvements to VOC analyser technology, portability and ease of use suggest that this methodology could significantly improve the diagnosis of VL infected dogs in Brazil and elsewhere and with other parasitic diseases such as Malaria, Chaga’s Disease and Leishmania in humans.