Want To Know If You Have COVID? Ask A Dog!
Written by Tariq on July 28, 2020
A German study out of the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover found that dogs are able to distinguish human saliva samples that are infected with the novel coronavirus from those that are not with 94 percent accuracy, if properly trained.
For the study, which was published in the BMC Infectious Diseases journal on July 23, researchers trained eight dogs from Germany’s Armed Forces for just one week. The dogs were directed to sniff the saliva of more than 1,000 people both infected and not infected with COVID-19. The samples were distributed at random, and neither the dogs nor their handlers knew if they were receiving an infected sample.
According to the study, since dogs can be trained relatively quickly, this method of detection could be “employed in public areas such as airports, sport events, borders, and other mass gatherings” in addition to, or in place of, lab testing. After all, both methods seemingly have similar levels of accuracy: Quick coronavirus tests using swabbed samples from the nose, throat, or saliva, are only about 93 percent accurate. The only test that boasts higher results than the dog sniffing method is a deep nasal swab, which is 99 percent accurate.
Source: Best Life
