Dogs can sniff out COVID-19 with 94 percent accuracy, study says

[Mosby]

Man’s best friend could soon be man’s best chance at ever setting foot in a stadium again.

Dogs can sniff out the coronavirus with a striking 94 percent accuracy rate — raising the possibility of instant tests at sporting events and airports, according to a new study.

Canine handlers trained eight dogs from Germany’s Armed Forces to discern human saliva infected with COVID-19 from healthy saliva, according to the study, which was lead by the University of Veterinary Medicine Hanover and the Hanover Medical School.

Researchers then set up samples from 1,000 people at random, ordered the dogs to pinpoint the infected ones — and found the animals were accurate 94 percent of the time, according to the study.

https://nypost.com/2020/07/29/dogs-can-sniff-out-coronavirus-with-94-accuracy-study-says/amp/

[soothsayer]

1. Dogs are awesome!

[LonePirate]

2. That suggests COVID infected people have a scent dogs can recognize or these results are bogus.

I would like to see more studies performed. While I think it is possible dogs can smell something directly attributable to the virus, I also think human error could be a factor here unless other studies reach a similar conclusion.

[Mosby]

4. They might be smelling an immune response or something.

beagles have been trained to sniff out cancer cells so who knows.

[Ms. Toad]

7. From the article:

The pooches were able to make the potentially life-saving distinction because the virus likely “completely changes” an infected person’s internal chemistry — giving their saliva a different scent, said one researcher involved.

“We think that the dogs are able to detect a specific smell of the metabolic changes that occur in those patients,” Maren von Koeckritz-Blickwede, a professor at the university who conducted the study, said in a Youtube video about the experiment.

Link to the study https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-020-05281-3

[BannonsLiver]

14. I'm not surprised

Dogs have been used by epileptics to signal seizures are about to happen. Some can even smell the breath of diabetics and alert them to problems.

https://can-do-canines.org/our-dogs/ourdogs/diabetes-assist-dogs/

But of course this being DU we have an abundance of Holiday Inn Express epidemiologists who think they have some special insight. (Not talking about you.)

[Ms. Toad]

16. It made perfect sense to me, as well. n/t

[intrepidity]

6. I didn't read the study, but you may have a point

For example, did they included negative controls such as saliva from people with the flu? A cold?

But knowing dogs, this study is probably accurate.

Yay dogs!

[SoonerPride]

3. I'd like to place an order for 47,000,000 dogs please

Thanks.

[renate]

21. I'd like that, COVID or not

More dogs = merrier

[Ohiogal]

5. Yes they are

And especially Labrador Retrievers....

[LakeArenal]

8. Oh gawd, Now a-dog sniffing my crotch at Walmart.

[leftieNanner]

9. Um.

Saliva??

No comment.

[ProfessorGAC]

10. That's Pretty Amazing!

Easy to expand the study and verify, too.

[flamingdem]

11. What about asymptomatic people?

They are often the super spreaders of Covid.

[Solomon]

12. 6 per cent still gets through though.

[BannonsLiver]

15. Better than 100 percent

[TheBlackAdder]

13. Catch a whiff.

.



.

[Nevilledog]

17. Cats could detect 100%.... They just wouldn't tell us.

[Cracklin Charlie]

18. That's weird.

I think I had Covid in January. My dogs were really acting strange the whole time I was sick, and would hardly leave my side for at least a month after.

I thought they were just a little unnerved by the fact that I was so sick, and had hardly left the couch for a week.

Maybe they knew it was something worse than the flu I thought it was at the time.

[JDC]

19. Dogs can be trained to tell a diabetic if their blood sugar is high or low

This does not surprise me at all. Amazing animals.

[Doreen]

20. It does not surprise me in the least that dogs can do that.

[smirkymonkey]

22. Dogs are just the most amazing creatures.

They are even more accurate than a test, and much cuter too!