‘Doctor dogs’ for cheaper Covid tests

New Delhi: Scent dogs specialised in following scent and smells could provide for a cheaper, faster and more effective way to detect COVID-19, scientists say after reviewing 29 studies where dogs were used in detecting Covid.

These hunting breeds, known to have the most sensitive noses among dogs, were found to detect Covid, including its variants and also long Covid, in symptomatic, pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic patients with similar or better sensitivity and specificity than the current gold-standard RT-PCR tests or antigen tests.

“Although many people have heard about the exceptional abilities of dogs to help humans, their value to the medical field has been considered fascinating, but not ready for real-world medical use,” said Tommy Dickey, University of California, Santa Barbara, US, and the study’s corresponding author. In one of the studies reviewed, four of the dogs detected the same as a drop (0.05 mL) of odorous content dissolved in a water amount filling up more than 10.5 Olympic-sized swimming pools, this study published in the Journal of Osteopathic Medicine said.