Dogs can smell coronavirus, study finds. But can they help us fight the pandemic?
With their exceptional sense of smell, dogs are capable of detecting the novel coronavirus in patient samples “with a high rate of precision,” according to a new study out of Germany.
The preliminary findings, published Thursday in the journal BMC Infectious Diseases, suggest dogs might be able to replace some laboratory tests that are subject to delay during the pandemic, and be used in public areas such as airports, sporting events and borders to prevent the virus from spreading undetected.
“Dog odor detection is far better than the general public can imagine,” study co-author Dr. Esther Schalke, behavioral researcher and dog trainer with the Bundeswehr School of Official Dogs in Ulmen, said in a news release. “We were amazed at how quickly our dogs could be trained to recognize samples from SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals.”
Since domestication, dogs have been known to use their strong smell abilities to hunt and protect themselves from predators. In more recent years, canines have been taught to sniff out illnesses such as cancer, malaria and bacterial infections, according to the researchers.
In an attempt to curb invisible spread of the coronavirus, the team led by researchers from the University of Veterinary Medicine Hanover trained eight dogs for a week using scent holes with hidden metal containers filled with nose and throat samples from COVID-19 infected or non-infected patients.
The dogs were able to correctly identify 94% of the 1,012 patient samples, the study said.
That means 157 samples were detected correctly as positive and 792 were identified correctly as negative. Meanwhile, 33 samples were incorrectly detected as negative and 30 were incorrectly identified as positive, according to the study.
The researchers said respiratory infections release “volatile organic compounds” that can cause what they call a “scent imprint,” which trained dogs can sniff out.
More research needs to be done to put the dogs on the field, but news that dogs can contract the coronavirus from humans is concerning, the researchers said. It’s also unknown how a dog’s sense of smell can change once infected.
This story was originally published July 24, 2020 at 10:27 AM with the headline "Dogs can smell coronavirus, study finds. But can they help us fight the pandemic?."
