{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,18]],"date-time":"2026-02-18T09:01:32Z","timestamp":1771405292687,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":38,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,18]],"date-time":"2026-02-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1771372800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004281","name":"National Science Centre","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2020\/39\/D\/NZ6\/03185"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2020\/39\/D\/NZ6\/03185"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004281","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Animals"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are increasingly recognized as metabolic byproducts of viral infection and may serve as olfactory cues detectable by trained scent dogs. This study examined whether dogs could distinguish cell culture samples infected with murine hepatitis virus strain 1 (MHV-1), a biosafety level 2 coronavirus model, from uninfected controls. Parallel chemical analysis using gas chromatography\u2013mass spectrometry (GC-MS) identified 14 VOCs in infected and 12 in control samples. Notably, 3-heptanone and 1-nonanol were unique to infected samples, while others such as acetophenone, nonanal, decanal, and benzaldehyde were significantly elevated\u2014often by 1.5 to 3 times\u2014in infected cultures. Two trained dogs demonstrated high detection sensitivity (0.95) for infected samples compared to a previously trained odor cinnamon group (0.88) and responded with shorter latency (p = 0.04), suggesting perceptual salience of infection-related VOCs. Reliable detection required pooled volumes (~600 \u00b5L), suggesting a threshold effect related to VOC concentration. Additionally, a Random Forest-based machine learning classifier trained on the GC-MS-obtained VOC profiles achieved a cross-validated accuracy of 0.82 (SD = 0.25). These findings suggest that dogs use quantitative VOC differences, rather than unique compounds, for detection. The study provides a validated experimental framework for olfactory diagnostics of viral infections and highlights the potential of scent dogs as non-invasive biosensors in both veterinary and public health contexts.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ani16040647","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,18]],"date-time":"2026-02-18T07:50:30Z","timestamp":1771401030000},"page":"647","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Trained Scent Dog Detection and GC-MS Analysis of Volatile Organic Compounds from Murine Coronavirus-Infected Cell Cultures"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7329-4802","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Agata","family":"Kokoci\u0144ska-Alexandre","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Biological Bases of Animal Production, Faculty of Animal Sciences and Bioeconomy, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, 20-950 Lublin, Poland"},{"name":"Department of Reproduction and Clinic for Farm Animals, The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Wroc\u0142aw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 50-366 Wroc\u0142aw, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0006-6529-3061","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Martyna","family":"Woszczy\u0142o","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"VetAI.bio Ltd., London UB9 5NJ, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5063-4306","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Micha\u0142","family":"Dzi\u0119cio\u0142","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Reproduction and Clinic for Farm Animals, The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Wroc\u0142aw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 50-366 Wroc\u0142aw, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2939-5782","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Agata","family":"Kublicka","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathology, Division of Microbiology, The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Wroc\u0142aw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 50-375 Wroc\u0142aw, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Adam","family":"Szumowski","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Food Chemistry and Biocatalysis, The Faculty of Biotechnology, Wroc\u0142aw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 50-375 Wroc\u0142aw, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8423-7296","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jacek","family":"\u0141yczko","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Food Chemistry and Biocatalysis, The Faculty of Biotechnology, Wroc\u0142aw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 50-375 Wroc\u0142aw, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Katarzyna","family":"Bar\u0142owska","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Genetics and Animal Biotechnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, 05-552 Jastrz\u0119biec, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Antoni","family":"Szumny","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Food Chemistry and Biocatalysis, The Faculty of Biotechnology, Wroc\u0142aw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 50-375 Wroc\u0142aw, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Marcin J.","family":"Skwark","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"VetAI.bio Ltd., London UB9 5NJ, UK"},{"name":"InstaDeep Ltd., London W2 1AS, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7282-6560","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Anna Karolina","family":"Matczuk","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Pathology, Division of Microbiology, The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Wroc\u0142aw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, 50-375 Wroc\u0142aw, Poland"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"257","DOI":"10.1093\/jb\/mvr090","article-title":"The Scent of Disease: Volatile Organic Compounds of the Human Body Related to Disease and Disorder","volume":"150","author":"Shirasu","year":"2011","journal-title":"J. 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