Sniffer dogs are able to detect up to 94% of COVID-19 cases, according to a new study, and may soon be deployed at airports to screen arrivals.
Researchers found the virus has a “distinctive odor,” which means trained medical detection dogs can identify infected people — including those who have no symptoms, the London School of Tropical Medicine found in its study.
The researchers “gathered samples of clothing and face masks from people who had tested positive for mild or symptomatic SARS-CoV-2,” Agence France-Press reported. “Samples of the socks of 200 Covid-19 cases were collected and arranged in lab tests for six dogs that had been trained to indicate either a presence or absence of the chemical compound.”
The dogs were trained for eight weeks to weed out “false positives” in an effort to get free treats. “This means that the dog fully understands and gets a reward for a correct negative as well as a correct positive,” said Claire Guest, from the school’s Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, the AFP reported.
The dogs were then able to detect 82% to 94% of positives. The researchers said “using dogs to screen arrivals at terminuses such as airports could detect 91 percent of cases,” the AFP reported. They said just two dogs would be able to screen 300 passengers after deplaning in only 30 minutes, and those who are identified as positive would then take a PCR test to confirm the results.
Professor James Logan, who led the project, told the Daily Mail that dogs “would not be able to entirely replace PCR tests but are significantly quicker and just as accurate as rapid lateral flow tests.”
“The advantage of using this method is being able to detect COVID-19 with incredible speed and good accuracy among large groups of people, even in asymptomatic cases,” he said. “This really could help us get back to doing the things we love sooner, safely and with less disruption, such as helping to reduce queuing times at border points or sporting events.”
“While PCR is the gold-standard test, dogs hold a major advantage and that is that they are quick,” Logan said. “300 people can be screened in under 30 minutes by two dogs, which is the equivalent of a plane load of passengers, without adding any extra time to their journey. We hope this research will enable the deployment of Covid dogs here in the UK and overseas … at travel hubs such as airports, perhaps theatres, stadiums, workplaces and other public venues.”
“What we’re suggesting is that dogs would give the first initial screening, and then those (arrivals) that were indicated as positive would then receive a complimentary PCR test,” Logan told the paper.
Joseph Curl covered the White House for a dozen years and ran the Drudge Report for four years. He can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter at @JosephCurl.
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Source: Dailywire
