Trained dogs can detect the odour of Parkinson’s Disease

Nicola Rooney; Drupad Trivedi; Eleanor Sinclair; Caitlin Walton-Doyle; Monty Silverdale; Perdita Barran; Tilo Kunath; Steve Morant; Mark Somerville; Jayde Smith; Julie Jones-Diette; Jenny Corish; Joy Milne; Claire Guest

doi:10.1101/2023.11.01.23296924

Trained dogs can detect the odour of Parkinson’s Disease

Nicola Rooney^*, Drupad Trivedi, Eleanor Sinclair, Caitlin Walton-Doyle, Monty Silverdale, Perdita Barran, Tilo Kunath, Steve Morant, Mark Somerville, Jayde Smith, Julie Jones-Diette, Jenny Corish, Joy Milne, Claire Guest

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

A definitive diagnostic test for Parkinson’s Disease (PD) remains elusive, so identification of potential biomarkers can facilitate diagnosis and early intervention. Two dogs were trained to distinguish between dry skin swabs obtained from People with Parkinson’s (PwP) and control participants. After 38-53 weeks of training on 205 samples, the dogs were tested in a double-blind trial using 60 control and 40 target (drug-naïve PwP) samples. They each showed high sensitivity (70% and 80%) and specificity (90% and 98%). This supports previous findings that dogs can be trained to reliably detect the odour of PD.

Original language	English
Journal	Journal of Parkinson's Disease
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.11.01.23296924
Publication status	Accepted/In press - 8 Apr 2025

Keywords

dogs
sensitivity
specificity
Parkinson's disease
canine
olfaction

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10.1101/2023.11.01.23296924

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title = "Trained dogs can detect the odour of Parkinson{\textquoteright}s Disease",

abstract = " A definitive diagnostic test for Parkinson{\textquoteright}s Disease (PD) remains elusive, so identification of potential biomarkers can facilitate diagnosis and early intervention. Two dogs were trained to distinguish between dry skin swabs obtained from People with Parkinson{\textquoteright}s (PwP) and control participants. After 38-53 weeks of training on 205 samples, the dogs were tested in a double-blind trial using 60 control and 40 target (drug-na{\"i}ve PwP) samples. They each showed high sensitivity (70% and 80%) and specificity (90% and 98%). This supports previous findings that dogs can be trained to reliably detect the odour of PD.",

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T1 - Trained dogs can detect the odour of Parkinson’s Disease

AU - Rooney, Nicola

AU - Trivedi, Drupad

AU - Sinclair, Eleanor

AU - Walton-Doyle, Caitlin

AU - Silverdale, Monty

AU - Barran, Perdita

AU - Kunath, Tilo

AU - Morant, Steve

AU - Somerville, Mark

AU - Smith, Jayde

AU - Jones-Diette, Julie

AU - Corish, Jenny

AU - Milne, Joy

AU - Guest, Claire

PY - 2025/4/8

Y1 - 2025/4/8

N2 - A definitive diagnostic test for Parkinson’s Disease (PD) remains elusive, so identification of potential biomarkers can facilitate diagnosis and early intervention. Two dogs were trained to distinguish between dry skin swabs obtained from People with Parkinson’s (PwP) and control participants. After 38-53 weeks of training on 205 samples, the dogs were tested in a double-blind trial using 60 control and 40 target (drug-naïve PwP) samples. They each showed high sensitivity (70% and 80%) and specificity (90% and 98%). This supports previous findings that dogs can be trained to reliably detect the odour of PD.

AB - A definitive diagnostic test for Parkinson’s Disease (PD) remains elusive, so identification of potential biomarkers can facilitate diagnosis and early intervention. Two dogs were trained to distinguish between dry skin swabs obtained from People with Parkinson’s (PwP) and control participants. After 38-53 weeks of training on 205 samples, the dogs were tested in a double-blind trial using 60 control and 40 target (drug-naïve PwP) samples. They each showed high sensitivity (70% and 80%) and specificity (90% and 98%). This supports previous findings that dogs can be trained to reliably detect the odour of PD.

KW - dogs

KW - sensitivity

KW - specificity

KW - Parkinson's disease

KW - canine

KW - olfaction

U2 - 10.1101/2023.11.01.23296924

DO - 10.1101/2023.11.01.23296924

M3 - Article

SN - 1877-7171

JO - Journal of Parkinson's Disease

JF - Journal of Parkinson's Disease

ER -

Trained dogs can detect the odour of Parkinson’s Disease

Abstract

Keywords

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