H7N9始末:狗能幫人類抗擊禽流感

Mice were trained to identify feces from bird-flu-infected ducks by smell.

老鼠經過訓練後能通過氣味識別出感染禽流感的鴨子的糞便。

Four-Legged Biosensors Sniff Out Bird Flu

狗也能嗅出禽流感病毒

You’ve probably seen dogs working security at airports, sniffing for drugs, bombs and contraband food. Now our best-friend biosensors might have a new task: ferretting out the scent of bird flu.

你可能在機場看到過警犬參與安全檢查工作，它們可以嗅出毒品、炸彈以及違禁的食品。狗是我們最好的朋友，目前作爲生物探測器的狗可能又有了一項新的任務：那就是搜索出禽流感的蛛絲馬跡。

And they may not be alone on the job. Researchers from the US Department of Agriculture and Monell Chemical Senses Center trained mice to identify duck droppings from animals infected with bird flu. The work was presented at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston.

而且狗可能不是唯一擔任這項任務的動物。來自美國農業部以及蒙奈爾化學傳感中心（Monell Chemical Senses Center）的研究者們對老鼠進行訓練後，讓它們從其它動物的糞便中辨別出感染了禽流感的鴨子的糞便。該項工作發表在波士頓舉行的美國化學會全國會議上。

The scientists trained six mice to run a maze in search of infected feces. Every time they found the right feces, they got a drink of water. The mice learned to choose infected over non-infected duck feces about 90 percent of the time.

科學家們訓練六隻老鼠在迷宮中尋找感染禽流感的鴨子的糞便。每次如果它們能找到這些糞便的話，它們就會喝到一次水。在90%的情況下，這些老鼠都能找出感染禽流感鴨子的糞便。

The researchers believe the implications could be twofold. 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.

研究者們相信，該研究的意義可能是雙重的。首先，禽流感很顯然在鳥的糞便中留下了一種氣味，因此狗—甚至是老鼠—在訓練之後能識別出這種氣味。第二，科學家們可能在衆多的化合物混合物中分離出放出這種氣味的化合物，從而可以開發出實驗室使用的儀器或者自動化的野外探測器。到那個時候，我們也許會發現大大小小的四足傳感器（譯者注：這裏指狗）四處搜索禽流感病毒，從而保證我們不被這種流行病侵害。