New research suggests sniffer dogs can be trained to accurately identify people infected with COVID-19. .Researchers from the University of Helsinki in Finland trained four drug-sniffing dogs to smell skin samples from 114 COVID-positive people and 306 who had tested negative, as reported by the UK's GB News. .Results of the study found the dogs correctly identify the virus with 92% accuracy. .The four dogs were then brought to the Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport where they sniffed 303 incoming passengers between September 2020 and April 2021. The dogs correctly identified 296 out of 300 as negative, but identified three positive cases as negative. .One key finding showed the dogs were less likely to correctly identify the alpha variant and led the researchers to conclude "training samples should cover all epidemiologically relevant variants.".“Our preliminary observations suggest dogs primed with one virus type can in a few hours be retrained to detect its variants,” wrote researchers in the open-access medical journal, BMJ Global Health..Based on the data collected from the study, the dogs can be trained within weeks and show a similar degree of accuracy compared to that of current swab tests at 96% accuracy, according to FDA data..Researchers suggest the sniffer dogs could be used in high-prevalence areas, such as hospitals, to prescreen patients and personnel or in low-prevalence areas, such as airports, to prescreen passengers. .Scientists behind the study say the detection method would be valuable during the early stages of a pandemic, as well as to help contain an ongoing pandemic.
New research suggests sniffer dogs can be trained to accurately identify people infected with COVID-19. .Researchers from the University of Helsinki in Finland trained four drug-sniffing dogs to smell skin samples from 114 COVID-positive people and 306 who had tested negative, as reported by the UK's GB News. .Results of the study found the dogs correctly identify the virus with 92% accuracy. .The four dogs were then brought to the Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport where they sniffed 303 incoming passengers between September 2020 and April 2021. The dogs correctly identified 296 out of 300 as negative, but identified three positive cases as negative. .One key finding showed the dogs were less likely to correctly identify the alpha variant and led the researchers to conclude "training samples should cover all epidemiologically relevant variants.".“Our preliminary observations suggest dogs primed with one virus type can in a few hours be retrained to detect its variants,” wrote researchers in the open-access medical journal, BMJ Global Health..Based on the data collected from the study, the dogs can be trained within weeks and show a similar degree of accuracy compared to that of current swab tests at 96% accuracy, according to FDA data..Researchers suggest the sniffer dogs could be used in high-prevalence areas, such as hospitals, to prescreen patients and personnel or in low-prevalence areas, such as airports, to prescreen passengers. .Scientists behind the study say the detection method would be valuable during the early stages of a pandemic, as well as to help contain an ongoing pandemic.
