Dogs can sniff out COVID-19 better than a RAT

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-06-02 04:00

International

Positive marking by a U.A.E. dog during the trial. PHOTO: Nosaïs Team, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

French and Emirati researchers have found that dogs trained to sniff out COVID-19 infections in people can do so with a high sensitivity and even perform better than some commonplace testing methods. Of 335 participants, about one-third tested positive for the viral infection through a nasal RT-PCR swab. Overall, trained doggos were able to pick up 97% of these cases by sniffing their sweat samples compared to a nasal PCR, reaching 100% sensitivity for asymptomatic cases. These results were even higher compared to antigen testing, such that the researchers say this method is a rapid and non-invasive alternative to RATs. Future research will focus on how well the pups do in real-life mass testing scenarios such as airports and sporting events.

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conference: PLOS ONE

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University Paris-Est, Maisons-Alfort, France; Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades, France; Universite´ de Paris; France; Ministry of Interior of the UAE; UAE; Hôpital Saint Louis, France; Hôpital Bichat, France

Funder: The trial was supported by a grant from the French Ministry of Health, Region Ile de France and Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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