Sniffer dogs play an important role in human life including tracking and identifying crime suspects, the detection of drugs, explosives and land mines. In this study the effect of previously reported canine olfactory receptor (cOR) genes on the olfactory ability was evaluated. Allele specific multiplex PCR and PCR-RFLP were used to detect SNPs at positions 176 of OR52N9 and 592 of OR9S25, respectively, without sequencing. The outbreeding cohort exhibited no significant difference from certified GSD in olfactory ability, but there was a noticeable difference in cohort according to SNP allele genotypes. This result would provide the possibility of SNPs of olfactory receptor genes being used as a marker of olfactory ability in sniffer dog breeding.
This result has been published in the "Journal of Veterinary Behavior" under the title of "Efficient screening of SNP in canine OR52N9 and OR9S25 as assistant marker of olfactory ability" (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2022.12.008).
