Biomedical canines

Wildlife Ethology & Conservation Canine Lab

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Biomedical alert and detection dogs and psychiatric service dogs

This research program started in 2012 and was terminated in 2022.

Psychiatric service dogs for PTSD and CUD (Cannabis Use Disorder)

Investigators: Drs Simon Gadbois¹, Sherry Stewart¹, Pablo Romero¹
PhD (IDPHD) student: Laura Kiiroja¹ (Gadbois lab)

1: Dalhousie University, Halifax

Ketosis detection in dairy cows

Investigators: Drs Simon Gadbois and Miriam Gordon
Masters student: Amy Byers (Harrington)

Hypoglycaemia detection for Type I diabetes

Elizabeth Cummings (paediatric endocrinologist at the IWK), Elizabeth McLaughlin (paediatric health psychologist at the IWK) and myself are involved in a research program for Hypoglycaemia Detection Canines for youth with Type I diabetes. Catherine Reeve, was the graduate student associated with this project.

Main goal: Determine experimentally if dogs can detect/discriminate hypoglycaemia from normoglycemia and hyperglycaemia in vitro.

Investigators: Drs Simon Gadbois¹, Elizabeth Cummings¹³, Elizabeth McLaughlin³
Research collaborator, former PhD student (Gadbois lab): Dr. Catherine Reeve¹²

1: Dalhousie University, Halifax 2: Queen’s University, Belfast, 3: IWK Health Centre, Halifax

Publications:

Reeve, C., Cummings, E., McLaughlin, E.,Smith, S., Gadbois, S. (2020). An idiographic investigation of diabetic alert dogs’ ability to learn from a small sample set. Canadian Journal of Diabetes, 44, 37–43; doi.org/10.1016/j.jcjd.2019.04.020

Gadbois, S, & Reeve, C. (2016). The semiotic canine: scent processing dogs as research assistants in biomedical and environmental research. Dog Behaviour, 2, 26–32. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4454/db.v2i3.43

Reeve, C., Wentzell, P., Wielens, B., Jones, C., Stehouwer, K., & Gadbois, S. (2018). Assessing individual performance and maintaining breath sample integrity in biomedical detection dogs.Behavioural Processes, 155, 8–18; doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2017.08.008

Undergraduate students involved (Gadbois lab): https://simon.gadbois.org/team.html

Other biomedical contributions:

Koivusalo, M., Vermeiren, C., Yuen, J., Reeve, C., Gadbois, S., & Katz, K. (2017). Canine scent detection as a tool to distinguish methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) from other Staphylococci. Journal of Hospital Infection, 96, 93–96.

For further information, do not hesitate to contact Dr. Gadbois at sgadbois@dal.ca