Parasitic Wasps as Bio Sensors

Boar taint may occur in meat from un-castrated sexually mature male pigs and consumers commonly show a strong aversion to tainted meat. Given that there are currently no alternatives available to entirely exclude boar tainted meat and to prevent the exposure of consumers to tainted pork, there is a great need for rapid, perceptive and reliable detection methods to sort out tainted carcasses on the slaughterline. UGA biological and agricultural engineers tested the ability of the parasitic wasp, Microplitis croceipes, to perceive and learn the three boar taint compounds both individually and in combination using classical conditioning paradigms. They also established the effectiveness and reliability of boar taint odor detection when wasps were used as biosensors in a contained system called the 'wasp hound' using a cohort of trained wasps. Use of these wasps as biosensors presents a promising method for boar taint detection.