Olfactory perception of insects in pest management and forensic entomology

昆虫主要通过化学刺激来感知环境。从宿主发出的特定化学线索除了提供确定是否存在捕食者或寄生虫的信息外，还向昆虫传递诸如宿主的适宜性、交配潜力等信息。在畜牧设施中发现的滋扰昆虫会导致疾病的传播、对动物的痛苦、严重的感染，最终导致生产力的丧失，甚至牲畜的损失。例如，屠宰场也面临着滋扰昆虫的污染问题。将从牲畜设施和与屠宰场有关的产品中收集空气夹带，以收集与其环境有关的挥发性化学品。将对这些收集进行分析，最重要的是将检查它们对常见害虫的影响。我们将利用气相色谱(GC)和触角电极法(EAG)相结合的技术，分析从牲畜和肉类产品中回收的挥发性物质，以确定哪些特定化合物能引起重要滋扰昆虫的反应。然而，EAG只确认了对行为改良剂或信号化学物质的反应，而不是与该化学物质或一组化学物质有关的实际行为影响。因此，将使用识别的信号化学物质进行实验室和田间生物分析，以确定它们的具体效果。除驱虫剂外，一个目标是分离和识别引诱剂，这些引诱剂可能被用于害虫管理战略，以帮助防止疾病传播，减少有害杀虫剂的使用量，并帮助增加牲畜的繁殖。利用这些技术，还将收集与腐烂猪有关的挥发性化学物质，以便更好地解释参与身体分解的腐肉昆虫的演替。总体而言，我们的目标是确定信号化学物质对昆虫的影响，长期目标是制定可在从农场到超市的食品行业不同领域实施的综合虫害管理策略，以保持供人类消费的高质量肉类产品。

Insects primarily sense their environment using chemical stimuli. Specific chemical cues emitted from a host convey such information to the insect as suitability of the host, mating potential, in addition to providing information to determine whether predators or parasites may be present. Nuisance insects found in livestock facilities contribute to the spread of diseases, distress to the animals, serious infections, and ultimately the loss of productivity and even the loss of livestock. For example, slaughter-houses also face contamination problems concerning nuisance insects. Air entrainment collections will be made from livestock facilities and products associated with abattoirs in order to collect the volatile chemicals associated with their environment. The collections will be analysed, and most importantly their effect on common insect pests will be examined. By using combined gas chromatography (GC) and electroantennogram (EAG) techniques, we will analyse the volatiles recovered from livestock and meat products to determine which of the specific compounds elicits a response from important nuisance insects. The EAG, however, only confirms the response to a behaviour modifying compound, or semiochemical, and not the actual behavioural effect associated with that chemical or group of chemicals. Therefore, laboratory and field bioassays will be conducted using the identify semiochemicals in order to determine their specific effect. A goal is to isolate and identify attractants, in addition to repellents, which can potentially be used in pest management strategies to help prevent the spread of diseases, reduce the amount of harmful pesticides used, and help increase proliferation of the livestock. Using these techniques, volatile chemicals associated with decomposing porcine will also be collected in order to better explain the succession of carrion insects involved in decomposition of the body. Overall, it is our objective to determine the impact of the semiochemicals on the insects, with the long-term goal of developing integrated pest management strategies which can be implemented in diverse areas of the food industry, from farms to supermarkets, so that the high quality of the meat products for human consumption can be maintained.