Scent Detection Dogs Discern Odour Molecules Better Than Previously Thought
hubie writes:
A study carried out by the University of Helsinki's DogRisk research group, the University of Eastern Finland and Wise Nose - Scent Discrimination Association in Finland investigated the threshold for scent detection in dogs.
The study revealed that dogs can learn to identify concentrations of eucalyptus hydrolate that are clearly below the detection threshold of sophisticated analytical instruments used today. The concentrations were also far below previously reported levels. Dogs' extraordinary sense of smell can be exploited, for example, in search and rescue operations and in medical detection.
The 15 dogs that participated in the study had different training backgrounds. Some dogs had experience of nose work, which is a hobby and competitive dog sport, while some had been trained to identify diseases, mould or pests.
In the study, the dogs were to differentiate samples containing low concentrations of eucalyptus hydrolate from samples containing only water. The focus was on determining the lowest concentration that the dogs could detect for certain. The study included three different tests where the concentrations of the hydrolate were diluted gradually until the dogs could no longer identify the scent. This determined the threshold for their scent detection ability.
"The dogs' scent detection threshold initially varied from 1:10-1:10^2^3 but narrowed down to 1:10^1-1:10^2^1 after a training period. In other words, the dogs needed 1 to 10 molecules per millilitre of water to detect the right sample. For perspective, a single yeast cell contains 42 million molecules," describes the principal investigator of the study, Anna Hielm-Bjorkman from the University of Helsinki.
Journal Reference: Turunen, S.; Paavilainen, S.; Vepsalainen, J.; Hielm-Bjorkman, A. Scent Detection Threshold of Trained Dogs to Eucalyptus Hydrolat. Animals 2024, 14, 1083. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14071083
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