Trained dogs identify people with malaria parasites by their odour

Work has shown that people infected with malaria parasites produce a body odour that is detected by mosquitoes, which results in malaria mosquitoes preferentially feeding on asymptomatic, malaria-infected individuals.1 We hypothesised that dogs, with their highly advanced sense of smell,2 could be trained to detect people carrying malaria parasites. The study was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Grand Challenges Exploration Grant OPP1150969. The study was approved by The Gambia Government and Medical Research Council Joint Ethics Committee on May 16, 2016 (SCC 1479v2), London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Ethics Committee on Aug 5, 2016 (11827), and the School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences Ethics Committee, Durham University, on May 13, 2016 (SBBS/EC0116/Med Det Dogs/May 16).