Dogs Quickly Detect Virus in COVID-19 Mass Screening Tests

A group of researchers across several institutions in France and one in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) discovered through testing that dogs may be as effective as publicly and already available tests in mass screening people for COVID-19. The group describes how they tested multiple dogs sniffing human sweat samples for COVID-19 and how well they did in their paper published on the open-access site PLOS ONE.

Previous research indicates that dogs can detect a disease in someone nearby, such as cancer. Dogs may be able to do the same with COVID-19, according to some research. To confirm the hypothesis, the researchers put multiple dogs through their paces while sniffing multiple sweat samples.

The test to confirm the dogs' abilities in detecting the virus involves having multiple dogs trained to sniff samples of human sweat. The canine subjects were trained to sit down if they detected COVID-19. The training was done in the same way that explosives-sniffing dogs are trained. After being tested, the dogs were brought to the Alfort School of Veterinary Medicine, where sweat samples were collected in cones.

The dogs sniffed sweat samples from 355 human volunteers in total. The researchers discovered that the dogs were 97% accurate in identifying people who had previously tested positive through a PCR test. They were also 100% accurate in detecting COVID-19 in people who did not have any symptoms. In other tests, the dogs were found to perform better than antigen tests in identifying people with COVID-19. Antigen tests are the most common type of test that can be used at home.

The sweat samples used in the experiment were taken from the armpits, the back of the neck, and used face masks, demonstrating that samples can be taken from a variety of locations on the body. They also point out that the mechanism by which dogs can detect infections in people is still unknown. They also point out that dogs are much faster at detecting COVID-19 than any of the tests developed by humans, with results arriving almost instantly. The only limitation identified by the team was the scarcity of trained dogs, Phys Org reports.

Research and Resources from France and UAE

The research team was led by Dominique Grandjean, from Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire d'Alfort (Alfort School of Veterinary Medicine), University Paris-Est, Maisons-Alfort, France. The team hopes to further develop the possibility of having trained canine units as a non-invasive detection method for SARS-CoV-2.

The dogs involved in this study were canine units from French fire departments Service départemental d'Incendie et de Secours - SDIS of Yvelines and Oise. On occasion, the Ministry of the Interior of the United Arab Emirates provided to increase the number of operational dogs involved.

The Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire d'Alfort's committee on the ethics of animal experiments approved the protocol for the dogs, according to the team. They also stated that all research procedures followed all applicable guidelines and regulations.