Body odor
odor produced by a living animal
Body odor or body odour (BO) is the unique odor secreted by an animal or produced by microorganisms on an animal's outermost surfaces. It is present in all animals, and its intensity can be influenced by many factors (behavioral patterns, survival strategies). Body odor has a strong genetic basis, but it can also be strongly influenced by various factors, such as sex, diet, health, and medication. The body odor of human males plays an important role in human sexual attraction as a powerful indicator of genetic variation (MHC/HLA heterozygosity); significant evidence suggests that women are attracted to men whose body odor is different from theirs, indicating that they have immune genes that are different from their own, which may produce healthier offspring.
Causes
In humans, the formation of body odors is caused by factors such as diet, sex, health, and medication, but the major contribution comes from bacterial activity on skin gland secretions. Humans have three types of sweat glands: eccrine sweat glands, apocrine sweat glands and sebaceous glands. Eccrine sweat glands are present from birth, while the latter two become activated during puberty. Among the different types of human skin glands, body odor is primarily the result of the apocrine sweat glands, which secrete the majority of chemical compounds that the skin flora metabolize into odorant substances. This happens mostly in the axillary (armpit) region, although the gland can also be found in the areola, anogenital region, and around the navel. In humans, the armpit regions seem more important than the genital region for body odor, which may be related to human bipedalism.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Body odor” as odor produced by a living animal. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as odor produced by a living animal. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1328199. The Library of Congress control number is sh96008470. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
Scientific names, classifications and consensus can change while older terminology persists in catalogues and historical literature. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Body odor” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.