Presentation Details
| Minimum infection level for canine detection of powdery mildew Hannah G.Thorr1, Edgar O.Aviles-Rosa 1, Mizuho Nita2, Erica Feuerbacher3, Nathaniel J.Hall1. 1Canine Olfaction Lab, Animal and Food Sciences Department, Box 42141 Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA.2School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Alson H.Smith Jr.Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Winchester, Virginia, USA.3School of Animal Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA |
Abstract
Powdery mildew (Erysiphe necator; PM) is one of the most common fungal diseases, infecting grapevine leaves and berries to cause crucial production losses in quality and yield. Thus, early detection of PM can reduce the economic impact on vineyards. Prior work from our lab has demonstrated that detection dogs can detect PM infected leaves with an accuracy and sensitivity >95%. However, their limits of detection remain unknown. This experiment measured dogs’ ability to detect grape leaves with varying levels of PM infection. Two dogs were trained to detect PM using a 3-AFC paradigm. We then measured sensitivity to discriminate healthy leaves (controls) from varying infected PM leaves (e.g., 1-100% coverage of the leaf). Dogs showed >85% detection, 95% CI [0.80, 0.95] of >50% covered PM leaves and accuracy gradually decreased and dropped below 63%, 95% CI [0.51,0.73] for < 10% covered leaves. These procedures provide a foundation for assessing dog performance in detecting various PM infection levels on grape leaves. These methods also offer insight into initial steps in evaluating the feasibility of training dogs to detect PM in vineyards and other crop manufacturing systems.
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