Extra-sensory dogs are trained to sniff out COVID-19 in human sweat with accuracy that is very similar to traditional tests.
International researchers claim that well-trained dogs have the ability to correctly identify coronavirus patients at a reported rate of 94% to 98%, according to some studies. If it proves to be effective, they say these dogs can be an asset to public health officials, who can place the capable sniffers in busy hubs, including airports, train stations and public events.
One of the first to base their coronavirus testing program on dogs: NASCAR. Race officials said Wednesday that they hired the 360 K9 group, which is in Alabama and Florida, to monitor infected guests during their recent rally – last Sunday’s Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway – and that they were attempting a “Trial base will continue. For Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500.
‘We think these dogs and this ability will enable us to quickly confirm that all the people on Sunday are entering the necessary footprint – it’s breed teams, it’s NASCAR officials, it’s the vendors working in the garage – all the people are COVID-free or not, ”said Tom Bryant, NASCAR’s managing director of racing operations, in a statement on Nascar.com. “The ability to do that has been the math problem we’re been constantly trying to solve since March last year.”
According to the dogs, coronavirus can detect infections in ‘just one to two seconds’, according to Thai veterinarian Kaywalee Chatdarong, who led research on a group of Labrador retrievers. Their dog horns boast a coronavirus accuracy rate of 95%, they told Reuters on Wednesday.
Chatdarong also suggested that the dogs, with more exercise, could diagnose even faster.
“In the future, when we send it to airports or ports where there is an influx of commuters, they will be much faster and more accurate at detecting the virus than temperature control,” Chatdarong said. These dogs are indeed already working at airports in Helsinki, Dubai and elsewhere.
Several training units in the US have participated in the effort to use dogs as another line of defense against the spread of coronavirus, such as the K9 groups BioScent K9 and K9 PI in Florida.
Although it is a relatively new approach to disease detection, researchers have in the past relied on dogs to help hunt for a number of diseases that can be identified in human sweat and other animals, including some cancers and flu strains.
It may take a while before we see these detector dogs being widely used, as the Food & Drug Administration is refining regulations on animal-based disease testing, which according to the Institute of Food and Drug Law have not been clearly defined.