Disease-Sniffing Dogs May Be Key To Rapid COVID-19 Detection

We try not to do too many Covid-related stories here. It’s not why you come here, but after showing you the cute/ ridiculous social distancing Disney Pins, we wanted to give you some good news, and there’s no better good news than good dog news!

In a new report on IFLScience, it looks like researchers are turning to man’s best friend in the time of the pandemic as a new disease detection method. Researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover in Germany trained eight sniffer dogs to identify scents associated with SARS-CoV-2 in samples human saliva. In just one week (shorter than it takes most people to get their test results back) the dogs were able to tell the difference between sick spit and healthy spit with a 96% accuracy rate.

While this was just initial research, it could provide hope to the millions of people who need to be tested around the world. Also, it’s not like this is anything new for pups. they don’t just sniff out drugs and bombs. Dogs are already being used to sniff out Parkinson’s, Malaria, and several types of cancer.

They truly are the goodest boys.