Breakout Session 4 A: Human Odor

Human scent is one of the most commonly utilized canine detection disciplines around the globe. The distinctive areas of human scent detection canines expand from suspect apprehension, location checks, scent identification line-ups and man trailing (fresh and/or aged trails). The human body as a target odor source is one of the most complex systems within canine detection applications. This is largely due to the diversity of odor-producing sources in the human body, as well as extrinsic variables that affect its movement and stability. The human odor print is comprised of many variables that include biological processes, genetic makeup, and microbial interactions. Over the past few years, there has been an increased interest as to the definition and evaluation of human odor. Human odor has witnessed novel advances with respect to analytical chemistry perspectives as it relates to different sampling and detection approaches with the ultimate objective of determining a more exact definition of its chemical composition. This presentation aims to provide a snapshot of recent developments and analytical trend highlights with respect to body odor studies to provide a coherent framework of human odor in today’s dynamic research arena. Variables to understand the dynamic nature of body odor is rooted not only in the definition and individualization of human scent but also lie in understanding how canines respond to the actual human odor cue when performing the identification and discrimination within that respective olfactory task. A review of analytical trends from different biospecimens will be presented to better understand the human body as an odor source as well as present points of consideration in human scent research designs for enhance interpretation of results and implications in canine performance.