Researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hannover, Germany discovered that dogs can detect the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 with amazing precision.
During testing, they discovered that eight German Army dogs were able to correctly identify the presence of the coronavirus 94 percent of the time after being trained just one week, since Bloomberg reports.
“We believe this works because the metabolic processes in the body of a sick patient have completely changed,” Maren von Koeckritz-Blickwede, a university professor, said in a video statement posted by the university on YouTube. “We believe that dogs can detect a specific odor produced” by the metabolic process.
Despite the fact that dogs are used to detect a variety of contraband substances and even explosives at airports and elsewhere, “people have not really realized the potential a dog could have for detecting sick from non-sick patients” , argues Holger Volk, head of the small animal clinic at Hannover University of Veterinary Medicine, in the video.
The researchers suggested that the dog sniffing method could be used in “public areas like airports, sporting events, borders, or other mass gatherings,” according to the video’s title, but only in addition to existing laboratory tests.
The COVID-19 samples were completely randomized, so neither the dog handlers nor the researchers knew which samples were positive and which were not. In other words, the researchers shielded themselves against the “Clever Hans” effect, in which the animals appear to be solving complex problems, but are actually taking cues from their human handlers.
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