As the availability of COVID-19 tests dwindle across Canada, another option to detect the virus in the form of a furry friend may be the next best thing.
Multiple studies show that dogs can be more effective, faster and potentially less expensive than the current tests on the market.
The research has grown since 2020, with University of California Santa Barbara professor Tommy Dickey finding the collective research shows trained scent dogs are “as effective and often more effective” than both the rapid antigen tests many people keep in their homes, and even the PCR tests deployed at clinics and hospitals.
But even with studies showing their effectiveness, COVID-19-detecting dogs are deployed only in certain jurisdictions in various countries.
One such place is the Canines for Care program at Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), which started looking into the possibility of training dogs to detect COVID-19 in early 2021.
Dr. Marthe Charles, division head of medical microbiology and infection prevention and control at VCH, said the idea stemmed from the early reliance on laboratory testing.
“I think there was a will from public health at the time and also from the various levels of government to try to find a way that was fast, accurate and non-invasive to be able to detect and train as many people as possible,” Charles told Global News in an interview.
Three dogs — two Labrador retrievers and an English springer spaniel — were brought in for training. The dogs were exposed to items such as masks that were worn by patients either negative or positive for the virus. This trained the dogs to recognize what is and is not COVID-19.
Charles said the dogs were trained since being puppies to associate the scent of COVID-19 with food and were rewarded each time they correctly detected a positive case of the virus.
“So from early on in their lives, they’ve associated the scent of a case of COVID to a rewarding scent,” she explained.
This reward method is not just used by VCM. It was also used with a group of dogs sourced in early 2021 for a French study, trained at detection using toys — usually tennis balls — as rewards.
Dr. Carla Simon, owner of Hunter’s Heart Scent Detection Canines in Calgary, said this method of training dogs is common. By using rewards, it can help motivate them to find the scent.
“We would pair, let’s say, the sweat samples with COVID, with their reward, and they notice that every time they find their reward, there’s that special smell,” she explained. “We just have to make it rewarding for the dog.”
She added, however, that the dog chooses the reward so trainers can ensure the canines “show up every day and want to do their job.”
Earlier this month, Dickey along with Heather Junqueira of BioScent, Inc. gathered several peer-reviewed studies into a review that was published in the Journal of Osteopathic Medicine. Dickey said the number of peer-reviewed studies over the past few years went from four to 29, incorporating the work of more than 400 scientists from more than 30 countries and 31,000 samples.
The review noted the effectiveness of dogs’ ability to detect COVID-19 comes down to their noses.
“The nose is not like humans,” Simon said. “It’s massively different, orders of magnitude different, and they can detect things without us being able to smell them.”
Humans have about five to six million olfactory receptors in their noses, while dogs have hundreds of millions. One-third of their brain is devoted to the interpretation of smell — something only five per cent of a human’s brain is committed to, according to Dickey’s review.
The study found dogs’ noses may even be able to detect pre-symptomatic COVID-19 cases, or even those who will develop symptoms later.
Dickey told us in an interview that this could help limit or stop the virus from spreading.
“The longer the wait is between your test and your result, that’s a latent period,” he said. “During that time you’re running around spreading COVID and you don’t know it. The dogs with a direct sniff will be done in seconds.”
Many of the studies conducted, including the work at VCH through the Canine for Care program, have shown dogs’ ability to detect the disease correctly with a success rate of more than 90 per cent. Additionally, the studies also showed a high speed at which the dogs could identify cases. In one study in Thailand, researchers reported the dogs had gone through thousands of samples in just a few weeks.
“The dogs take only one to two seconds to detect the virus per sample. Once they detect a patient, they will sit down,” said Chulalongkorn University professor Kaywalee Chatdarong, who led the 2021 project. “This takes only one to two seconds. Within one minute, they can manage to go through 60 samples.”
Even though the research suggested deploying scent-detection dogs could also be less expensive than rapid or PCR tests, Charles cautioned the logistics that go into training the dog is where it becomes “more prohibitive.”
In VCH’s case, training of the dogs included the medical microbiology lab to provide samples for use, working with infection prevention teams and control nurses, and if a dog identifies an area of concern, cleaning services may need to be utilized. And when it comes to rolling out testing using the dogs, enough staffing is needed for mass screening.
Despite this, while Charles says deploying the dogs widely could be difficult due to staffing and training, they are still one of several tools that can be used in COVID-19 detection.
“I think the way to see those dogs from my perspective is really like another tool in the toolbox and trying to prevent further transmission of pathogen of concern,” she said.
Dickey and Junqueira say dogs should have a place in “serious diagnostic methodology” including in helping should the world face a future pandemic.
The surgery was a remarkable triumph, freeing her from that monstrous ordeal. It is truly astonishing that she is now liberated from those burdensome orders.
T𝚑𝚊t is t𝚑𝚎 s𝚎c𝚘n𝚍 w𝚎 𝚑𝚊v𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚎n 𝚊ntici𝚙𝚊tin𝚐 𝚏𝚘𝚛 t𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚊s𝚘n t𝚑𝚊t st𝚊𝚛tin𝚐. W𝚎 𝚍isc𝚘v𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚍 Alm𝚊 tw𝚘 w𝚎𝚎ks in t𝚑𝚎 𝚙𝚊st m𝚊kin𝚐 𝚊n 𝚊tt𝚎m𝚙t t𝚘 𝚏l𝚎𝚎, sc𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚘𝚏 𝚎v𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚋𝚘𝚍𝚢, w𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚊s c𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚢in𝚐 𝚊 l𝚊𝚛𝚐𝚎 t𝚞m𝚘𝚛 𝚘n 𝚑𝚎𝚛 l𝚎𝚐. Sinc𝚎 t𝚑𝚎n, w𝚎’v𝚎 𝚐𝚘t 𝚋𝚎𝚎n w𝚘𝚛kin𝚐 t𝚘 𝚐𝚎t s𝚘 𝚏𝚊𝚛, t𝚑𝚎 𝚙l𝚊c𝚎 w𝚎’𝚛𝚎 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚙l𝚎x𝚎𝚍.
I will 𝚋𝚎𝚐in 𝚍𝚘c𝚞m𝚎ntin𝚐 𝚊nnm𝚊’s N𝚎w Li𝚏𝚎, 𝚊n𝚍 I will 𝚋𝚎 𝚍is𝚙l𝚊𝚢in𝚐 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚎v𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚍𝚊𝚢 𝚑𝚘w s𝚑𝚎’s 𝚍𝚘in𝚐.
T𝚑is 𝚍𝚘𝚐 𝚑𝚊s 𝚎v𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚋𝚘𝚍𝚢’s c𝚘nsi𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚊ti𝚘n 𝚊s 𝚊 𝚛𝚎s𝚞lt 𝚘𝚏 s𝚑𝚎 is 𝚐𝚘𝚛𝚐𝚎𝚘𝚞s, v𝚊𝚛i𝚎t𝚢, 𝚊n𝚍 sm𝚘𝚘t𝚑, 𝚑𝚘w𝚎v𝚎𝚛 m𝚘st si𝚐ni𝚏ic𝚊ntl𝚢 𝚊s 𝚊 𝚛𝚎s𝚞lt 𝚘𝚏 s𝚑𝚎 is 𝚊n 𝚞n𝚋𝚎li𝚎v𝚊𝚋l𝚎 s𝚞𝚛viv𝚘𝚛.
T𝚑𝚊nk 𝚢𝚘u 𝚊 l𝚘t t𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚑𝚎l𝚙; wit𝚑in t𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚊𝚢s t𝚘 𝚛𝚎t𝚞𝚛n, w𝚎’ll 𝚋𝚎 𝚊w𝚊itin𝚐 l𝚊𝚋 𝚘𝚞tc𝚘m𝚎s t𝚘 𝚏in𝚍 𝚘𝚞t w𝚑𝚊t s𝚘𝚛t 𝚘𝚏 t𝚞m𝚘𝚛 s𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚊s. S𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚎s𝚎𝚛v𝚎s t𝚑is 𝚊n𝚍 𝚊 l𝚘t 𝚎xt𝚛𝚊.
c𝚑𝚎m𝚘t𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚙𝚢 will st𝚊𝚛t, s𝚘 𝚊ll t𝚑𝚎 t𝚑in𝚐s is sw𝚎𝚎t, w𝚑𝚊t 𝚊n inc𝚛𝚎𝚍i𝚋l𝚎 w𝚘n𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚏𝚞l
B𝚎𝚊𝚞ti𝚏𝚞l st𝚘𝚛𝚢 I 𝚊𝚍mi𝚛𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚊 l𝚘t 𝚏𝚘𝚛.
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