Trained dogs have a high level of accuracy when it comes to smelling and they can smell the distinct odour of people infected with the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease, a new UK study said.
The study, done by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), said that specially trained dogs can detect COVID-19 non-invasively with up to 94.3 per cent sensitivity and up to 92 per cent specificity.
The study, which has been done in collaboration with Durham University and a charity, Medical Detection Dogs, was done with data combining dog trials, odour analyses and modellings. It found out that dogs were able to detect odour from asymptomatic and symptomatic COVID-infected individuals. The patients included those with two different COVID-19 strains and those with both high and low viral loads.
The study comes at a time when the presence of new variants of COVID pose a threat to the nation, on which Professor James Logan, Head of the…