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Animal Olfaction

Animal Olfaction - Supporting Applied Uses

Background:

Those who have some familiarity with the scientific literature in the area recognize that there are very few animal odor psychophysical data that one can confidently rely upon for evaluating the relative olfactory prowess of various species.  Results tend to vary much more among laboratories than among species or odorant chemical.  In spite of our very sketchy understanding in this area, there are a number of areas in which critically important decisions are made based on the olfactory systems of animals.  Most often, dogs are chosen as the species presumed to offer the best chance of detecting, recognizing and localizing missing children, escaped criminals, explosives, drugs, cadavers, leaking pipes, microorganisms, disease, contraband agricultural items, terrorism or crime victims, pest insects or other agents of interest.  In most or all of these settings, the dog works cooperatively with a trainer/handler whose role it is to interpret the dog’s behavior and render yes-no decisions and, in general, the following are true:

A.  There is not a set of chemically defined stimuli that can be used for training and testing purposes by different groups at different locations working with different breeds of dogs BUT with a common purpose of finding one or more threats to life and/or property.  

B.  The deficiency in “A” derives from the fact that there is not available a complete (or even near-complete) characterization of the relative abundances of different chemicals that the dog (or other species) is expected to use for localizing a given threat in the “real world”.  

C.  In view of both items above, there is no scientifically valid protocol for training dogs in a way that can be reasonably expected to result in optimized field performance for a given target of interest.  Similarly, there are not test protocols for determining when a dog or other animal has reached an asymptotic level of performance with respect to stimuli that are presented at concentrations at or near the limit of detectability of the olfactory system.  

D.  Finally, in view of “C”, one must conclude that there are not currently available objective test methodologies that will determine which dog or breed of dogs are best to use (so that likelihood of successful localization is maximal) for a given task or target of interest.

Jim Walker has not worked directly on any applied use of the canine olfactory system.  Jim has worked with individuals that had applied canine olfaction to the detection of cancer, prepared presentations and read extensively in all areas connected to the use of the canine olfactory system for detection of disease.  As to experience working with “messy” or chemically complex stimuli, Jim has had a number of years working with environmental tobacco smoke and has led efforts to generate progressively lower concentrations of this stimulus in an environmental chamber setting.  Also germane to the applied use of the canine olfactory system is Jim’s role in the development of the only published methodology for quantifying canine olfactory sensitivity in a manner predictive of “real world” performance.  Collectively the experiences and skills outlined above constitute the basis for his consulting in the area of applied animal olfactory research and development.  

 

Sample (hypothetical)  Projects/Issues:

1.  My major role in the organization (which has participation by a number of European governments) that employs me is to maximize the scientific sophistication used by member states to evaluate biological and non-biological chemical sensing systems.  My “clients” wish to have ways to quantify a wide range of tools for use in detecting explosives, drugs and other substances but I can at present determine which are the best methods for testing (for example) dogs and/or for comparing the performance of dogs with that of candidate non-biological replacements for the dog.  My organization requires immediate and unassailable expert assistance in selecting optimum test methods and in establishing the capabilities to have such methods applied on a timely basis to systems considered for purchase.  

2.  I represent a research organization that seeks to partner with a worldwide leader in the “production” of detector dogs to bid on a lucrative government contract.  The aim is to conduct rigorous research to compare representatives of several commonly used breeds on a variety of measures of performance.  Testing is needed to determine the time period over which stable performance can be expected, using different tasks.  A key objective is to understand the interactions among salience of the target chemical(s), the chemical complexity of the target odor and the number and relative intensity of distractor chemicals.  We cannot pursue this work, however, without the full participation of an internationally recognized expert in the quantification of canine olfactory capabilities.   

3.  I work for an NGO that has as one of its key tasks the provision of sniffer rats and detector dogs for use, by local populations, in the localization of landmines.  We wish to bring to bear the best scientific methodology for use in training and testing of both species.  Methodology whose development we wish to fund will be of critical importance in the initial characterization and follow-up testing of each animal delivered for field use.  It is important that the tests provide a straightforward means of making comparisons among species and between biological and non-biological detection systems.  It is imperative that we engage someone with the proven background, knowledge, scientific track record and “gravitas” to allow the optimum development, publication and acceptance of the standards and tests that result from work we seek to fund.  

4.  I represent a private organization that is gravely concerned over what it interprets as the extremely unsophisticated use of dog-handler teams as the sources of court-admissible evidence in criminal cases.  This group desires to fund a multi-year R&D effort to bring together the best in fundamental research methods (employing precise control of odorant concentrations and other features known to optimize data quality) for studying the canine olfactory system with optimized field training and testing methods.  It is imperative that one work product be information that is presented and published in peer-reviewed venues and that the work be sufficiently disseminated that ambiguity is essentially eliminated as to the conditions under which one may credibly rely on data from dog-handler teams to inform decision-making in the criminal justice system.  

5.  Our organization has a strong interest in improved understanding of the value of the canine olfactory system as an aid in the location of the bodies of individuals that have died as a result of accident or criminal activity.  We wish to engage and individual or research organization that will lead an R&D program that will yield, among other fruit, a set of training and testing chemical formulations that have been verified as being of great value in the optimum employment of cadaver dogs.  There are major fundamental and major field components to the science we seek to have conducted.  This work must provide a clear improvement in the quality of performance of dog-handler teams in use by various investigative and law enforcement organizations.  It must also yield a comprehensive “recipe” for the certification of dog-handler teams in this cadaver application.  Ideally, regimens that are developed for testing would allow for repeated within-team characterizations for, among other purposes, deciding when a given team should no longer be relied upon.