TORONTO -- Creating a fast and reliable test to detect COVID-19 has been expensive and challenging, but new research suggests a cheap and effective solution could be right under our noses 鈥 or rather, dogs鈥 noses.
Specially trained dogs are highly effective at sniffing out the presence of COVID-19 in human sweat, according to which bolsters existing evidence and suggests that dogs could play a key role in efforts to control the virus.
The proof-of-concept study in France and Lebanon trained six dogs for a month to detect the smell of patients who鈥檇 been sickened by the novel coronavirus. Researchers took sweat samples from more than 170 people, about half of whom were COVID-19 positive, and tested whether the dogs could differentiate between sick and healthy patients.
The animals with the least amount of training picked out the COVID-19 samples more than 76 per cent of the time. Two dogs already trained to sniff out cancer had a perfect record in the study, detecting COVID-19 in the samples 100 per cent of the time.
Results could be detected within one-tenth of a second.
to see if dogs can detect COVID-19 through saliva and urine samples.
When the idea to test dogs to sniff out COVID-19 was initially floated, it seemed ludicrous, said Dominique Grandjean, a professor at France鈥檚 National Veterinary School of Alfort and the study author.
鈥淔irst I said, 鈥楴o way. I mean, I think it's crazy. We don't see any viral disease that has been detected by dogs yet,鈥欌 Grandjean told 麻豆影视. 鈥淚 was really surprised and amazed because it seemed to me it was impossible."
Health authorities across Canada have been given more than 3.8 million rapid tests for COVID-19, but most jurisdictions are treating them with caution and verifying the results of those tests with lab-based tests, still considered the gold standard. Lab tests typically take at least one day to process.
Compared to rapid tests, sniffer dogs could provide a speedy and potentially even more accurate assessment of a patient鈥檚 condition. When a dog detects COVID-19 in a patient, it signals using a standard sign, such as barking or lying down. The dog is then rewarded with a treat or a toy.
鈥淚t's kind of a game for them,鈥 Grandjean said. 鈥淚 do think it is one of the best tests.鈥
Dogs have already been trained to sniff out bombs, drugs and even certain kinds of cancer. For COVID-19, the dogs don鈥檛 sniff out the virus itself.
鈥淭he dogs actually, they don't smell the virus, they smell for some molecules that are produced by the virus,鈥 Grandjean said.
Other countries, including Australia, Belgium and Finland, have already started putting virus-sniffing dogs to work. One Russian airline company is using dogs to sniff passengers before they board flights.
One dog is able to sniff about 400 people per day, Grandjean said.
鈥淚f you have 1,000 dogs in a country, that means that you can check 400,000 people in a day,鈥 she said.
Researchers in Canada are eager to begin training COVID-19 detection dogs here, too. Helene Carabin, a professor of epidemiology with the University of Montreal鈥檚 faculty of veterinary medicine, said dogs could be stationed outside hospitals, nursing homes and other places to protect the elderly and those who are immunocompromised.
鈥淭he vaccine is coming, but the full coverage won't be before a while. And even after a vaccine, we will still need to surveil COVID. So I think this is excellent news for public health in general,鈥 she said.
The biggest hurdle to implement such a plan at the moment, Carabin said, is lack of funding.
鈥淚n my mind, sniffing dogs are the most rapid tests we have on hand right now,鈥 she said. 鈥淵ou get the answer immediately. You don't need to wait. And this is a huge advantage when we're trying to do contact tracing.鈥
But once trained, dogs could be an affordable long-term solution, according to Eric Troncy, a professor of pharmacology at the University of Montreal's faculty of veterinary medicine.
鈥淐ompared to the expense we are doing with PCR tests, millions of dollars are spent on this aspect, where the dogs could do it for thousands of dollars,鈥 he said.
Dogs could make a particularly big difference in developing countries with already limited healthcare capacity. As for payment, Grandjean said the dogs in the study were perfectly happy to accept treats 鈥渁nd lots of petting.鈥
