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An Insect-Based Detector Of Bovine Manure Odors, D. Raj Raman, Reid R. Gerhardt

D. Raj Raman

We designed, constructed, and tested a single-stream insect odormeter for the measurement of bovine manure odors. The biosensing element in the odormeter is a group of six gravid face flies (Musca autumnalis DeGeer) in a 360 mL chamber. A microphone, mounted above the chamber, senses sounds made by the flies’ activity. The microphone signal is processed by an analog root-mean-square power-measuring circuit connected to a computer data acquisition system. The apparatus allows electronic measurement of insect activity. Initial experiments demonstrate the feasibility of this system for odor detection (yes/no). Kinetic experiments show that a dose-response curve can be produced by …