New Delhi: According to the latest research, trained dogs are capable of identifying 90 per cent of Covid-19 infections irrespective of whether cases are asymptomatic.
In the latest research from a team of scientists from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, discovered proof that dogs can sniff out the deadly virus. The findings of the public research university based in London also confirmed the studies of previous researches including a recent French study which showed that dogs were able to identify the virus with 97 per cent accuracy.
The study which is yet to be peer-reviewed is ready to read as a pre-print. The exceptional sense of smell has already been proved where dogs can sniff out maladies such as cancer, malaria and epilepsy. In the latest study, scientists used the socks of 200 Covid-19 patients and arranged lab tests for six dogs that had been trained to symbolise either a presence or absence of the chemical compound.
The researchers found that using dogs to screen arrivals at terminuses such as airports could detect 91 per cent of cases, ending in a 2.24 times lower rate of transmission than with PCR tests alone.
“What we’re suggesting is that dogs would give the first initial screening, and then those (arrivals) that were indicated as positive would then receive a complimentary PCR test,” said co-author James Logan.
As the dogs are said to have over 220 million scent receptors (in comparison, humans have 5 million) and are over 100,000 times more precise at recognising scents.
This has made dogs successfully sniff out multiple different types of cancer, alongside other diseases like malaria and Parkinson’s.
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