Extra-sensory dogs are being trained to sniff COVID-19 in human sweat with an accuracy that compares to traditional tests.
International researchers say that well-trained dogs have the ability to correctly identify patients with coronavirus at reported rates of 94% to 98%, according to some studies. If proven to be effective, they say these dogs could be an advantage for public health officials, who can place qualified sniffer dogs in high-traffic centers, including airports, train terminals and public events.
Among the first to launch its dog-based coronavirus testing program: NASCAR. Race officials said on Wednesday that they had hired the 360 K9 Group, based in Alabama and Florida, to monitor infected guests during their most recent event – the Cup Series race last Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway – and will continue the “trial basis” efforts for Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500.
“We think these dogs and this ability will allow us to quickly confirm that everyone who enters the essential area on Sunday – is the racing teams, the NASCAR officers, the salespeople who work inside the garage – all of these people are COVID-free or no, ”said Tom Bryant, NASCAR’s director of racing operations, in a statement on Nascar.com. “The ability to do that has been the math problem that we’ve been trying to solve continuously since March last year.”
Researchers say these dogs can spot coronavirus infections in “just one to two seconds,” according to Thai veterinarian Kaywalee Chatdarong, who led the research in a group of labs. Their dog cohorts boast a 95% accuracy rate for coronavirus detection, they told Reuters on Wednesday.
Chatdarong also suggested that, with more practice, dogs could diagnose even faster.
“In the future, when we send them to airports or ports, where there is a flow of passengers, they will be much faster and more accurate in detecting the virus than temperature checks,” said Chatdarong. In fact, these dogs have already been employed at airports in Helsinki, Dubai and elsewhere.
Several training units in the United States have joined in the effort to use dogs as yet another line of defense against the spread of the coronavirus, such as the Florida K9, BioScent K9 and K9 PI groups.
Although it is still a relatively new approach to disease detection, researchers have relied on dogs in the past to help hunt a range of diseases that can be identified in human sweat and other animals, including some cancers and flu strains.
It may take some time before we see these widely used detecting dogs, as the Food & Drug Administration refines regulations on animal disease testing, which were not clearly defined by the agency, according to the Food and Drug Law Institute .