Covid-19 Sniffer Dogs

**Pauls' Revere** · 07-25-2020, 10:17 AM

Soon, we'll be sniffed out.

https://www.dw.com/en/german-sniffer...rus/a-54300863

Scientists at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hanover have found that trained sniffer dogs could be used to detect COVID-19 in human samples with a relatively high rate of accuracy, a study published on Thursday revealed.

The animals were able to positively detect SARS-CoV-2 infected secretions with an 83% success rate, and control secretions at a rate of 96%. The overall detection rate, combining both, was 94%.

In its conclusion based on more than 1,000 sniffed samples, published in the BMC Infectious Diseases journal, the team said dogs could play a role in detecting infected individuals.

"What has to be crystal clear is that this is just a pilot study," said Holger Volk, chair of the university's department of small animal medicine. "There's a lot of potential to take this further — to really use these dogs in the field."

In their conclusion, the team envisaged using sniffer dogs to detect infectious individuals in certain places. 

"In countries with limited access to diagnostic tests, detection dogs could then have the potential to be used for mass detection of infected people," said the conclusion. "Further work is necessary to better understand the potential and limitation of using scent dogs for the detection of viral respiratory diseases."