Dogs can be used to detect COVID-19 in people, says new study

Trained dogs have a high level of accuracy when it comes to smelling and they can smell the distinct odour of people infected with the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease, a new UK study said. 

The study, done by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), said that specially trained dogs can detect COVID-19 non-invasively with up to 94.3 per cent sensitivity and up to 92 per cent specificity. 

The study, which has been done in collaboration with Durham University and a charity, Medical Detection Dogs, was done with data combining dog trials, odour analyses and modellings. It found out that dogs were able to detect odour from asymptomatic and symptomatic COVID-infected individuals. The patients included those with two different COVID-19 strains and those with both high and low viral loads. 

The study comes at a time when the presence of new variants of COVID pose a threat to the nation, on which Professor James Logan, Head of the Department of Disease Control at LSHTM, who led the project, said "that's where these amazing dogs could play a role." 

With this development, COVID-19 can be detected in large groups of people, even in asymptomatic cases, he said, adding that more testing is needed to determine whether the dogs will replicate the results of the study in a real-world setting.  

This method can detect COVID-19 in large groups of people with great speed and accuracy, even in asymptomatic cases. However, more testing is needed to determine whether the dogs will replicate these results in a real-world setting. However, the results of the study are extremely encouraging, he added. 

"Knowing that we can harness the amazing power of a dog's nose to detect COVID-19 quickly and non-invasively gives us hope for a return to a more normal way of life through safer travel and access to public places so that we can again socialise with family and friends," Dr Claire Guest, Chief Scientific Officer at Medical Detection Dogs, said. 

Dogs can screen passengers at airports, at ports of entry or other sites, an accompanying mathematical model confirms, adding that two dogs can screen 300 passengers during a "Rapid Screen and Test" implementation. 

And individuals, identified COVID-positive by dogs, would then be needed to go under PCR test.