Diagnoses by dog noses – Dogs can sniff out patients with COVID-19
Dogs can discriminate between samples from SARS-CoV-2 infected humans and control samples
A research team led by the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover (TiHo), in cooperation with the Bundeswehr, the Hannover Medical School and the University Medical-Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, has carried out a study with eight specialised sniffer dogs from the Bundeswehr to sniff out people infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The dogs were able to distinguish between samples from infected (positive) and non-infected (negative) individuals with an average sensitivity of 83 percent and a specificity of 96 percent. Sensitivity refers to the detection of positive samples. The specificity designates the detection of negative control samples.
