Trained dogs can detect Covid and PCR lab tests.

Scientists claim that dogs can be trained to detect the coronavirus with the same accuracy as laboratory PCR tests.

In fact, our canine companion can better identify asymptomatic infected people than tests.

A study using trained sniper dogs and sweat samples from 335 people. Of these 335 volunteers, 109 were confirmed by positive PCR, 31 of whom were asymptomatic.

Detection dogs were able to detect 97% of positive Covid cases, including all asymptomatic cases.

In a study published in the journal Plos One, dogs extracted scent samples from scent cones. If Covid was found, they sat in front of him.

Researchers have found that dogs are better at detecting positive cases, while traditional PCR tests are better at detecting negative cases. In some false-positive cases, the dogs detected a strain of respiratory illness that was not Covid.

It’s not clear what the dog will smell when it detects covid-19, but experts say it’s not a single chemical odor, but a pattern of increasing or decreasing odor, I think.

One of the undoubted benefits of using a dog is speed. While standard PCR tests can take a day or more to produce results, scientists involved in the study say the dogs were able to test 20 samples in 15 seconds.

However, there are drawbacks. Training sniper dogs is time consuming and currently the number of tests that need to be done is not enough. And second, as long as dogs work well in the lab, there’s no guarantee they’ll do the same in the real world.

But in the end, the scientists say the results are promising and could be an alternative to PCR. For example, if you hire a dog to test for Covid at an airport or event venue, or if it is difficult to pass a nasal swab test with traditional tests.

“Dog is one of the most high-tech devices we have. They’re not electronic sensors, they’re just biological sensors,” said a forensic chemist at the University of Florida, who was not involved in the study. Farton said.