Dogs are the latest weapons against COVID-19. They are faster than a PCR test and have higher accuracy than lateral flow tests. Dogs with their keen sense of smell have detected melanoma and other cancers. Here’s how the man’s best friend is stepping up in COVID-19 detection.
Is there any proof that dogs can detect COVID-19?
According to a new study, dogs can detect COVID-19 infections among people in a matter of seconds. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania found that a Belgian malinois and eight labrador retrievers identified covid positive patients from urine samples.
A year-long study conducted by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in the UK found that trained dogs can identify infected people with an accuracy of 94 percent. It is fantastic and fast!
How can dogs detect coronavirus?
You might wonder if the coronavirus has a smell that sniffer dogs can pick out. Well, according to studies, the virus produces toxins when it replicates. After metabolizing, they leave the body and have an olfactory signature. Dogs detect it from body smell, saliva, urine, sweat released. Dogs have different ‘tells’ but the body exudes help in identification.
“The dogs were trained over several weeks by introducing them to the odor samples from individuals that had tested positive for Covid-19, as well as control samples from people who had tested negative. Samples were presented to the dogs on a stand system and the dogs were rewarded for correctly indicating a positive sample, or for correctly ignoring a negative sample,” said Professor James Logan from LSHTM.
So, are dogs replacing the need for RT-PCR tests?
No, dogs can be a substitute but not the primary method of virus detection. RT-PCR test has a higher accuracy of 97.2 percent. But, this method can save time.
“The major benefit of these dogs is how quickly they can detect the odor of the infection. Our modeling suggested that the best use of the dogs is as a rapid mass screening tool with a confirmatory PCR for anyone who is indicated as positive by the dogs, and therefore could reduce the number of PCR tests required,” said Professor Logan.
Added advantages of using dogs to detect COVID-19
One of the benefits of this technique is that dogs could detect asymptomatic and mild cases of coronavirus. It can come in handy when trying to track or find Covid positive people in public spaces. Using dogs might be the next big step to track and reduce the number of cases.
