Detection of foot-and-mouth disease virus in the breath of infected cattle using a hand-held device to collect aerosols.

Exhaled air of individual cattle infected experimentally with foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) was sampled to assess the feasibility of a rapid, non-invasive general screening approach for identifying sources of FMDV infection. The air sampler used was a handheld prototype device employing electrostatic particle capture in a microchip chamber of 10-15 μL and was shown to effectively capture a high percentage of airborne microorganisms. The particles were eluted subsequently from the chip chamber and subjected to real-time RT-PCR.