Extrasensory dogs are trained to sniff COVID-19 in human sweat with an accuracy comparable to traditional tests.
International researchers have claimed that well-trained dogs have the ability to correctly identify coronavirus patients with reported rates ranging from 94% to 98%, according to some studies. If proven effective, they say these dogs could be an asset to public health officials, who can place the skilled sniffers in high-traffic hubs including airports, train terminals and public events.
One of the first to launch their 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 check for infected guests at their most recent event – last Sunday’s Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway – and that they are making the effort will continue on a “pilot basis”. For Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500.
“We think these dogs and this opportunity will allow us to quickly confirm that all those people are treading the essential footprint on Sunday – that’s race teams, that’s NASCAR officials, that’s the salesmen who work in the garage – that are all those people COVID-free or not, “said Tom Bryant, NASCAR director of racing operations, in a statement on Nascar.com. have tried to resolve. “
Researchers say these dogs can detect coronavirus infections in “just one to two seconds,” said Thai veterinarian Kaywalee Chatdarong, who led research on a group of Labrador retrievers. Their dog cohorts boast a 95% detection accuracy of the coronavirus, they told Reuters on Wednesday.
Chatdarong also suggested that with more exercise, the dogs could diagnose even faster.
“In the future, if we send them to airports or ports, where there is an influx of commuters, they will detect the virus much faster and more accurately than temperature controls,” Chatdarong said. These dogs have already been deployed at airports in Helsinki, Dubai and elsewhere.
Several training units in the US have joined the effort to use dogs as yet another line of defense against the spread of the coronavirus, such as the Florida-based K9 groups BioScent K9 and K9 PI.
While still a relatively new approach to disease detection, the researchers have relied on dogs in the past to help hunt for a number of diseases that can be identified in human sweat and in other animals, including some cancers and strains of flu.
It may be some time before we see these tracking dogs being widely used as the Food & Drug Administration refines regulations for animal disease testing, which, according to the Food and Drug Law Institute, is not clearly defined by the agency.