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Test Content Early in the pandemic, the possibility of using dogs to sniff out COVID-19 was explored in a few countries. And although the results of these early trials surpassed most people’s expectations, many questions remained.
In the past week, we have moved closer to answering these questions, with an article published in BMJ Global Health, which found that dogs could detect COVID-19 almost as well as PCR tests, in some circumstances.
EXCEPTIONAL DETECTION RATE
This article reported the results of two studies. In both studies, four dogs were tested to see how well they detected COVID-19 from skin swabs taken from people with or without COVID-19 (according to the gold-standard test, PCR).
These dogs didn’t just come off the streets; they had already had a significant amount of training in sniffing out drugs, dangerous goods or cancer.
