Detection dogs taught to sniff out Parkinson's

DOGS have been successfully trained to sniff out Parkinson's disease in samples of oil from human skin.

- By Hanna Geissler Health Editor

Researchers at the charity Medical Detection Dogs used swabs from people with and without a diagnosis to train golden retriever Bumper and black Labrador Peanut.

After instruction, the pair were tested with 60 new control samples and 40 skin samples from people with Parkinson's. They correctly identified 70% and 80% of the Parkinson's samples and ignored 90% and 98% of the control samples.

Persistent