Could dogs sniff out Parkinson’s disease?

With their extraordinary sense of smell, canines have already been known to be able to detect cancer, malaria, and even Covid-19.

ETX Daily Up –

Dogs are said to have a sense of smell 10,000 to 100,000 times more powerful than that of humans. (Envato Elements pic)

Dogs are well-known for their sense of smell, which can enable them, with training, to identify people with a wide range of diseases. These have been known to include cancer, malaria, and even Covid-19.

A study now reveals more about canines’ extraordinary ability to detect human pathologies. This research focuses on Parkinson’s disease, a neurodegenerative condition characterised by the progressive demise of brain cells essential to the proper functioning of the body.

Study authors Lisa Holt and Samuel Johnston claim that dogs can be trained to detect the specific scent of people with this disease, with an accuracy rate of over 80% – regardless of the dog’s breed. Indeed, dogs have an exceedingly strong sense of smell, estimated to be 10,000 to 100,000 times more powerful than that of humans.

Recent scientific studies suggest that people with Parkinson’s have volatile organic compounds in their sebum that smell different from those of healthy people. As such, Holt and Johnston wanted to see if dogs could “smell” the disease.

They thus conducted an experiment involving 23 dogs of 16 different breeds, including labrador retrievers, Hungarian vizslas, English mastiffs and Pomeranians. The canines were asked to sniff sebum samples taken from 43 people with Parkinson’s, and 31 volunteers with no health problems.

To ensure that the experiment ran smoothly, the selected dogs underwent eight months of training. Procedures included sitting, barking, pawing and muzzle wagging when they identified an olfactory marker of Parkinson’s.

Dogs could very well be valuable allies in the detection of Parkinson’s disease. (Envato Elements pic)

During the experiment, the dogs were also rewarded with a toy or treat each time they correctly identified a sebum sample.

On average, the animals were able to recognise people with Parkinson’s disease in 86% of cases. On the other hand, they failed to react to “healthy” sebum samples in 89% of cases.

“This study demonstrates that companion dogs can detect a Parkinson’s-associated target odour, which likely exists as one or more volatile organic compounds,” the experts explained in their paper.

While the conclusions are promising, they must be taken with caution given the small number of dogs involved. Nevertheless, there is every reason to believe that dogs could be valuable allies in the detection of Parkinson’s disease.

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Could dogs sniff out Parkinson’s disease?

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