{"id":4022,"date":"2020-07-27T18:50:24","date_gmt":"2020-07-27T18:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.net\/blog\/?p=4022"},"modified":"2020-07-27T18:50:24","modified_gmt":"2020-07-27T18:50:24","slug":"german-sniffer-dogs-show-promise-at-detecting-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.animalhealthfoundation.org\/blog\/2020\/07\/german-sniffer-dogs-show-promise-at-detecting-coronavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"German sniffer dogs show promise at detecting coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers in Germany have found that army sniffer dogs can discern between samples from coronavirus-infected and healthy patients. So high is the level of accuracy, they hope this can be used in real-life scenarios.<\/p>\n

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\"Deutschland<\/a><\/div>\n
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Scientists at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hanover have\u00a0found that trained sniffer dogs could be used to detect COVID-19 in human samples with a relatively high rate of accuracy, a study published on Thursday revealed.<\/p>\n

Eight sniffer dogs from the German Bundeswehr\u00a0were trained for only a week<\/a>to distinguish between the mucus and saliva of patients infected with coronavirus and non-infected individuals.<\/p>\n

The dogs were then presented with positive and negative samples on a random basis by a machine.<\/p>\n

‘Potential to take this further’<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The animals were able to positively detect SARS-CoV-2 infected secretions with an 83% success rate, and control secretions at a rate of 96%. The overall detection rate, combining both, was 94%.<\/p>\n

In its conclusion based on more than 1,000 sniffed samples, published in the\u202fBMC Infectious Diseases\u202fjournal, the team said dogs could play a role in detecting infected individuals.<\/p>\n