Editor’s Note: Find the latest news and guidance from COVID-19 at the Medscape Coronavirus Resource Center.
After a little training, dogs can detect and identify people infected with the coronavirus, according to a new study published in the journal BMC Infectious Diseases.
Eight dogs, which are part of the German Armed Forces, were trained for a week to detect the virus in saliva samples. They were then given more than 1,000 infected and uninfected samples and were able to detect 94% of the cases. They correctly identified 157 positive samples and 792 negative samples, but omitted 30 positive samples and gave false positives for 33 samples.
The study was a small pilot project tested by the German Armed Forces, the Hannover University of Veterinary Medicine and the Hannover Medical School.
“We believe this works because the metabolic processes in the body of a sick patient have completely changed,” Maren von Koeckritz-Blickwede, a professor at the veterinary university, said in a video.
“We believe that dogs can detect a specific odor from the metabolic changes that occur in those patients,” he said.
The trained dogs could be dispatched to airports, borders and sporting events to detect infections, according to a news release on the study.
The researchers will now train dogs to distinguish between samples of COVID-19 and other diseases like the flu. Within the medical field, dogs have been trained to detect cancer, malaria, and other bacterial and viral infections.
“Detecting dog odors is much better than the general public can imagine,” said Esther Schalke, a dog trainer who works at the Bundeswehr Official Dog School in Ulmen, Germany, in the statement. All eight dogs in this study were trained in the Bundeswehr.
“Still, we were amazed at how quickly our dogs could be trained to recognize samples,” he said.
SOURCES:
BMC infectious diseases, “Identification of samples of perfumed dogs from patients with COVID-19: a pilot study”.
Hannover University of Veterinary Medicine, “YouTube video, Diagnostics for Dog Noses”.
Hannover University of Veterinary Medicine, “Sniffing out the diagnosis of crown”.
.
