People infected with covid-19 have a special odor that dogs can detect.
It shows a new British study where six dogs have been taught to identify covid-19 on clothes.
The new study, which has not yet been reviewed, is a collaboration between the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Medical Detection Dogs and Durham University.
Similar projects have been initiated in Finland, Miami and Uppsala University.
Tove Fall is a professor of molecular epidemiology and leads the study at Uppsala University.
- This comprehensive study shows that specially trained dogs have a good ability to feel the difference in scent samples from people with and without covid-19, says Tove Fall, after reading the new study.
Six weeks of training
For six weeks, the dogs Asher, Kyp, Lexi, Marlow, Millie and Tala were trained to identify the smell of covid-19 in socks.
Then began the test, which contained 200 positive and 200 negative samples.
Neither the dogs nor the staff who took part in the tests knew which test was negative or positive.
When the dogs correctly identified an item of clothing that was infected or ignored one that did not contain the virus, they were rewarded.
Faster than PCR tests
The dogs were able to identify covid-19 in less than a second, with up to 94 percent dot accuracy.
However, different dogs performed differently, with varying point accuracy of 82-94 percent.
The dogs were also able to identify the British virus variant.
Dogs could be used during large events or at airports as many people need to be tested.
Then only the people that the dogs mark would need to be PCR-tested.
- There are no other tests that can provide answers so quickly.
Two dogs can examine 300 people while they get off a plane, for example, which means that you then avoid queues, says James Logan, zoologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine who led the study.