The smell of infection: Disease surveillance in insects using volatile organic compounds

Abstract

Insects play crucial roles in nearly every ecosystem and provide a wide array of ecosystem services. However, both managed and wild insect populations face threats from parasites and pathogens, which require surveillance to mitigate. Current infectious disease surveillance methods for insects often involve invasive, time‐consuming and occasionally destructive techniques, such as manual inspections and molecular detection. Volatile organic compound (VOC) surveillance provides a real‐time, accurate and non‐invasive alternative for disease detection and has been well‐established in humans and livestock. Recent advances in sensor technology now allow for the development of in‐field VOC surveillance devices. This review explores the need for disease surveillance in insects and highlights recent advances of using VOCs for this purpose, focusing on honey bees as an example. We outline potential applications, challenges and future prospects of using VOCs for insect disease surveillance, providing examples of how this technology could be globally applied to mitigate the impacts of disease in a range of insect systems.