Review Suggests Dogs Might Detect COVID-19 Better Than Current Tests

According to a new review paper published in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association dogs may be better at testing for COVID-19 than current PCR tests, according to IFLScience.com. 

“Accurate and rapid screening of individuals who may be carriers, symptomatic or asymptomatic, of the COVID-19 virus will remain important for slowing and limiting the spread of infection,” said Tommy Dickey, PhD, of University of California, Santa Barbara. “These preliminary studies suggest the use of medical scent detection dogs offers a promising approach.”

For this article, Dickey and his collaborator, BioScent researcher Heather Junqueira, reviewed four peer-reviewed articles; one from a team of collaborating researchers from France and Lebanon, a double-blinded, controlled pilot study from a German research team, research from a team in Columbia that tested trained scent dogs to develop a screening method for detecting COVID-19 in individuals who may be asymptomatic, presymptomatic, or symptomatic, and a perspective article from a research team from the United Kingdom that gave a preliminary description of their intended research focus on the goal of using biodetection dogs for limiting the spread of COVID-19 by travelers.  

Overall,“(t)he results of recently reported and ongoing research are encouraging; however, there remain challenges to be considered before broad-scale implementation of scent detecting dogs to identify and screen for COVID-19,” according to Junqueira.. “Nonetheless, the research supports the use of scent detection dogs for pilot COVID-19 screening studies in venues such as airports and sporting events.”