Good News: 'Dogs can Detect COVID19 Infection in Humans', Reveals New Report! Details

German researchers have recently found that trained dogs can detect COVID19 in humans. The success rate of the research is at a stunning 94 percent, according to a new study. The researchers revealed that using coronavirus- sniffing dogs in public areas especially in places like airports and sporting events where there is a high possibility of spreading. 

The pilot study was published in BMC Infectious Diseases by the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover. Eight dogs from Germany’s army were trained for over a period of one week and were successful in detecting the virus in humans Earlier in May, BBC News cited a similar study in a report wherein researchers tried to see whether specialist medical sniffer dogs can detect coronavirus in humans.

How are the dogs trained? 

Researchers trained eight detection dogs for a period of one week to detect saliva or tracheobronchial secretions of infected patients. The dogs sniffed the saliva of both infected and non- infected people as a part of the study and were able to identify the virus with 94% accuracy. 

The findings highlighted that trained dogs can identify respiratory secretion samples from patients who are being clinically treated for COVID-19. The dogs were able to distinguish between infected patients and negative controls. 

“We think this works because metabolic processes in the body of a diseased patient are completely changed, and we think that the dogs are able to detect a specific smell of the metabolic changes that occur in those patients,” Professor Dr Maren Von Köckritz-Blickwede was quoted as saying in a YouTube video on the study.

“According to Dr Holger Volk, another professor from the university, dogs have a sense of smell that is 1,000 times better than humans, indicating their potential within the medical field is huge,” Times Now cited in its report.

“We know for a very long time that dogs have been used in a lot of walks of life, but for medical detection, it's a novel at the end of the day. People have not really realized the potential a dog could have to detect diseased from non-diseased patients,” Vold added.

The study also added that several studies which were conducted in the past prove that dogs’ exemplary olfactory acuity enables them to detect people with infectious as well as non- infectious diseases such as cancer, malaria, bacterial and viral infections.

Researchers are of the view that the results from their study will form as the basis for forming a reliable screening method.