Dogs Can Quickly Detect COVID
Dogs Can Quickly Detect COVID
Man’s Best Friend: Dogs Sniffing Out COVID-19
Are you worried about getting a COVID-19 test? Well, look no further than your furry friend! According to a recent research review, dogs have shown remarkable talent in detecting COVID-19. In fact, they may be even more effective than at-home antigen tests or sophisticated hospital tests. These findings have opened up new possibilities for using dogs as a mainstream medical tool.
The review, which included 29 peer-reviewed studies conducted by over 400 scientists from 30 countries, revealed that trained dogs can match the accuracy of gold-standard hospital tests like the RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) test, if not surpass them. Dogs can even detect COVID-19 when it’s masked by other viruses, such as the common cold or flu.
This extraordinary ability stems from dogs’ highly evolved noses, which possess physical and nerve optimizations for smell. They have hundreds of millions of olfactory receptors, compared to a mere 5 to 6 million in humans. Astonishingly, one-third of their brains are dedicated to interpreting smells, while only 5% of the human brain focuses on this sense. To put it into perspective, dogs can detect the equivalent of one drop of an odorous substance in 10.5 Olympic-sized swimming pools, which is three orders of magnitude better than scientific instrumentation.
But it doesn’t stop there – dogs can even identify COVID-19 in pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic patients with viral loads too low for standard tests to detect. In some cases, dogs can provide a yes or no answer within seconds just by directly smelling a person who might be infected. Other scenarios, such as sniffing a person’s sweat sample, require a bit more time.
Scent dogs like beagles, basset hounds, and coonhounds are deemed ideal for this work. However, other dogs, including puppies, can also be trained for it within a few weeks. The breed, gender, and pedigree do not hinder a dog’s ability to detect COVID-19. There was even a heartwarming case of a “problem” pit bull terrier, previously abused, which successfully became a COVID detector through proper training.
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Despite the impressive international research on scent dogs, many still view their abilities as a curiosity rather than a serious diagnostic tool. Countries like Finland and Colombia have been more open to using dogs in field experiments. However, the researchers argue that the abundance of high-quality research presented in this review indicates that medical scent dogs are finally ready for mainstream medical applications.
Having dogs as a rapid diagnostic tool would have been immensely helpful during the early stages of the pandemic. Quick detection and isolation of COVID-19 cases could have significantly slowed the spread of the virus. Therefore, it is essential to recognize the potential of dogs as lifesaving detectors.
The findings of this review were published in the Journal of Osteopathic Medicine, further solidifying the importance of integrating canine scent detection into healthcare practices. The researchers, Tommy Dickey and Heather Junqueira, emphasize the urgent need to consider dogs as a serious tool in the medical field, opening doors to a host of applications.
So, the next time your furry friend starts sniffing around, they might just be trying to tell you something. Man’s best friend is more than just a loyal companion; they might also be our allies in fighting COVID-19.
For more information on COVID-19 testing, you can visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Source: University of California, Santa Barbara, news release, Aug. 14, 2023
