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Coronavirus has an odor: Trained on smelly socks, bio-detection dogs sniff out COVID-19

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Kate Kelland, Reuters

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/life/05/21/20210521-dog-that-has-been-trained-to-sniff-out-the-coronavirus-disease-thailand-rtr.jpg"/><figcaption>A dog that has been trained to sniff out the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), screens a sweat sample at Chulalongkorn University, in Bangkok, Thailand May 21, 2021. Jorge Silva, Reuters</figcaption></figure></div>LONDON - Sniffer dogs trained using smelly socks worn by people infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus could soon be used at airports or mass gathering venues to pick up the &quot;corona odor&quot; of COVID-19-infected people, British scientists said on Monday.Working in teams of two, the COVID-trained dogs could screen a line of several hundred people coming off a plane within half an hour, for example, and detect with up to 94.3% sensitivity those infected, the scientists said.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/05/22/21/sweat-sniffer-dogs-make-thai-debut-as-coronavirus-detectors">Sweat-sniffer dogs make Thai debut as coronavirus detectors</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/03/18/21/thai-sniffer-dogs-can-detect-covid-19-in-sweat-project-shows">Thai sniffer dogs can detect COVID-19 in sweat, project shows</a></li></ul>Presenting results of an early stage study - which involved some 3,500 odor samples donated in the form of unwashed socks or T-shirts worn by members of the public and health workers - the researchers said the dogs were even able to sniff out asymptomatic or mild COVID-19 cases, as well as cases caused by a mutant variant that emerged in the UK late last year.&quot;Dogs could be a great way to screen a large number of people quickly and prevent COVID-19 from being re-introduced into the UK,&quot; said Steve Lindsay, a professor at Durham University&#x27;s department of biosciences who worked on the study.James Logan, a disease control specialist at the London School of Hygiene &amp; Tropical Medicine who led the project, said the major advantage of sniffer dogs over other screening methods such as lateral flow testing is their &quot;incredible speed and good accuracy among large groups of people&quot;.The British research, published online on Monday before being peer-reviewed, adds to other pilot projects in Finland, Germany, Chile and elsewhere which are trialing COVID-trained sniffer dogs at airports.The dogs in the UK study were trained over several weeks by being introduced to 200 odor samples from people who had tested positive for COVID-19, as well as 200 control samples from people who tested negative.The highest performing dogs in the trial detected coronavirus odor in the samples with up to 94.3% sensitivity, meaning a low risk of false negative results, and up to 92% specificity, meaning a low risk of false positive results.This accuracy is higher than recommended by the World Health Organization for COVID-19 diagnostics, Logan&#x27;s team said, with the dogs outperforming lateral flow tests, which have an overall sensitivity of between 58% and 77%.<figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1617152" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>Independent experts cautioned that the findings would need to be replicated in real-world situations.&quot;This proof of concept study suggests that trained detection dogs could be used in places like airports, sports stadiums and concert venues,&quot; said Lawrence Young, a virologist and professor of molecular oncology at Warwick University.&quot;The big question is will this approach work in the real world on people rather than samples of socks and shirts?&quot; (Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

LONDON - Sniffer dogs trained using smelly socks worn by people infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus could soon be used at airports or mass gathering venues to pick up the "corona odor" of COVID-19-infected people, British scientists said on Monday.

LONDON - Sniffer dogs trained using smelly socks worn by people infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus could soon be used at airports or mass gathering venues to pick up the "corona odor" of COVID-19-infected people, British scientists said on Monday.

Coronavirus has an odor: Trained on smelly socks, bio-detection dogs sniff out COVID-19

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Coronavirus has an odor: Trained on smelly socks, bio-detection dogs sniff out COVID-19

Kate Kelland,

Reuters

Published May 24, 2021 09:09 AM PHT

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coronavirus

covid-19

corona odor

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sniffer dog

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