Although, as the father of a daughter currently with 2 service dogs and w
ho has walked them frequently, I haven't observed that they think sniffin
g human feces is a good thing! This might be sample bias gi
ven relative availability of canine versus human samples in certain locatio
ns? Then again, humans have (thank goodness) other ways of markin
g our territories and leaving messages for others. Maybe this would
be a better tool for veterinary medicine diagnostics? We di
d recently review a film in which a marine veterinary expert was sniffing t
he blowhole of a dolphin to check for certain respiratory diseases.
And then, in human medicine, there was "The Maddness of King George III
" which was likely do to the relatively rare condition of intermittent porp
hyria in which (in the technology of the times), the color and the odor o
r the urine were key diagnostic clues. There is an old medical mono
graph called "Ye Pisse Potte", however, in which a physician at the tim
e noted that it were better than a physician examined a patient once than h
is urine an hundred times.
[Tongue firmly in cheek; nose held.]
And the next 2 days, I'm doing yet another training program on agroterror
ism preparedness and response! Good thing I'm not a canine!
Unfortunately, anything short of SCBA or Supplied Air with a really good
seal doesn't necessarily filter out certain mercaptans and other odiferous
compounds commonly found around the barnyard or paddock.
Alan
Alan H. Hall, M.D.
> Date: Mon, 16 May 2011 12:42:15 -0400
> From: secretary**At_Symbol_Here**DC
HAS.ORG
> Subject: [DCHAS-L] Dog detection strategies beyond Hg...<
BR>> To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**LIST.UVM.EDU
>
> From: "Eric Clark"
<erclark**At_Symbol_Here**ph.lacounty.gov>
> Date: May 16, 2011 10:46:51
AM EDT
>
> Hello Colleagues,
>
> Did
you happen to see the Chemical & Engineering News (May 9, 2011, p
56) article regarding the cancer-sniffing dog? According C&EN, thi
s amazing dog can correctly identify positive colorectal cancer from a pati
ent's fecal specimen with 97% accuracy. As far as service animal jobs go,
this one must be considered by dogs to be the epitome of all the sniffing
jobs, leaving drug, explosive, and mercury-sniffing in a distant 2nd
, 3rd, and 4th place.
>
> The next step for the resea
rchers is to identify the compound that's unique to cancer. Perhaps this do
g could also serve as a GC detector by sniffing what comes off of the chrom
atography column - the correct fraction being when the dog's tail wags. But
I don't believe using a GC dog-detector is something research labs present
ly do do.
>
> Eric
>
> Eric Clark, MS
, CCHO, CHMM
> Safety & Compliance Officer
> Lo
s Angeles County Public Health Laboratory