Scent Dogs Detect Coronavirus Accurately from Skin Swabs

A current research by the University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital affirmed that scent detection dogs can be taught to recognize people with a coronavirus infection from skin swabs. In the experimental set-up at Finland’s Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport, the dogs’ accuracy in identifying the samples was 92 percent.

The quick and exact identification and isolation of patients with coronavirus infection is a fundamental part of worldwide pandemic management. The current diagnosis of coronavirus infection is built upon a PCR exam that properly and sensitively detects coronavirus from other pathogens. PCR tests are improper for screening extensive masses of individuals because of, among other points, their slow outcomes, and high cost.

The triple-blind study in dogs

A triple-blind, randomized, controlled study was conducted by scientists from the Faculties of Veterinary Medicine and Medicine at the University of Helsinki, and Helsinki University Hospital, to evaluate the accuracy of scent detection dogs trained to identify positive and negative skin swab specimens.

In this study, neither the dog, dog handler, nor the researcher knew which samples were positive or negative. Additionally, the study examined factors that could potentially interfere with the dogs’ ability to detect positive samples.

The three-faceted research has now been released in the journal BMJ Global Health. The research supplies valuable data on usage of scent dogs in pandemic control.

Correct detection in over 90 percent of samples; only tiny differences in accuracy between dogs

In the first stage of the study, the dogs were taught to differentiate the skin swab samples of coronavirus individuals from those of volunteers who were examined negative. After a training time of several weeks, the dogs relocated from the training center to Helsinki-Vantaa Airport for the following stages of the research.

During the second phase of the study, four trained dogs were subjected to a validation test to assess their ability to distinguish between samples. Each dog was presented with a series of 420 samples over a period of seven days.

Multiple parallel samples were collected from each donor, ensuring that each dog was given a set of 114 samples from coronavirus patients and 306 control samples to smell. The coronavirus status of all donors was confirmed through PCR testing. Each day, the dog was given 20 sample tracks, each containing three samples, presented in a random order for testing.

The dogs identified the specimens correctly 92 percent of the moment. While their sensibility to detect a positive coronavirus specimen was 92 percent, their specificity was 91 percent. Just tiny differences in accuracy were observed between the four dogs. The coronavirus infection being created by virus variants was the singular most prominent aspect contributing to erroneous detection by the dogs.

Research Results

The findings of the study support earlier claims that trained scent dogs are capable of detecting individuals who have been infected with the coronavirus.

“Our research set-up was of a high scientific standard. The specimen dimensions were sufficiently extensive, and all dogs smelled a similar collection of samples, allowing comparison of their effectiveness. The dogs also had to efficiently detect specimen series having only negative specimens, a vital characteristic when screening people. Another considerable positive aspect was that specimens were obtained from outpatients instead of hospital patients. Additionally, the testing was carried out under real-life conditions instead of in a lab,” claims the leader of the DogRisk study group and docent of clinical study in companion animals, Anna Hielm-Björkman from the University of Helsinki.

Anu Kantele, Professor of Infectious Diseases and Chief Physician at the University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, pointed out that the dogs had difficulty detecting samples from patients infected with a coronavirus variant during the study.

This was particularly impressive because the dogs had been trained on the original wild-type virus, which meant that they were not always able to identify the variant samples as positive. This observation highlighted the remarkable discriminatory ability of the dogs.

Major aid from scent dogs at airports and ports

The third research stage was conducted by screening travelers and team at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport in a real-life scenario. The scent dogs successfully identified 98.7 percent of the negative specimens. In real-life testing, the low variety of coronavirus-positive samples avoided a correct valuation of the dogs’ performance with positive samples.

However, founded on good ‘job motivation specimens’ frequently offered to the dogs during this part of the study, the efficiency on the correctly detected positive samples also was evaluated at 98.7 percent.

Job motivation samples are naive specimens pre-gathered from PCR positive patients but not formerly smelled by dogs. They are offered to the dogs at regular intervals to keep their interest in the target scent in scenarios and atmospheres where the percentage of positive samples is very low.

“Scent dogs can provide important equipment for restricting viral spread during a pandemic, serving, for instance, at air and seaports. Such a reliable, inexpensive approach to quickly screen a large variety of samples or identify passing virus providers from a large group is of value specifically when the testing capacity with traditional methods is insufficient,” states Anu Kantele.

“Our study group will proceed to research how scent dogs can best help our society. We hope that this freshly released research will assist in allocating finance for developing this new ‘device’. There are numerous other diseases where study can take advantage of the excellent sense of smell that these dogs have,” says Hielm-Björkman.

Research Participants

The research was supported by various organizations, including the Finnish Cultural Foundation, Svenska Kulturfonden I Finland, Academy of Finland, Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation, Finnish Medical Association, Veterinary Hospital Chain Evidensia, Nose Academy, Finavia, Vantaa city, and deputy mayor Timo Aronkytö.

The study group led by Anna Hielm-Björkman also received additional support from private donations through the coronadog fundraising campaign, which was jointly organized by the Finnish Kennel Club and the University of Helsinki. The dogs underwent initial training at the NGO Wise Nose training facility.

Read the original article on University of Helsinki.

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