While digging up some ideas on how airport authorities could speed up the present laborious PCR-proof process, one suggestion made me sit up and take notice — let our airports go to the dogs. Sniffer dogs, that is.
At least that’s the conclusion of a U.K. study in which researchers confirmed that dogs are able to detect COVID-19 faster and more accurately than PCR tests.
The research, which involved 4,000 volunteers, concluded that COVID-19 does indeed have an odour and, so, can be easily detected by dogs. In fact, during the research, the dogs used in the study were able to distinguish between positive and negative odour samples with a sensitivity up to 94 per cent and specificity up to 92 per cent.
On the the other hand, the accuracy of PCR testing ranges between a low of 78.3 per cent to a high of 88.1 per cent, according to America’s renowned Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
The study, a collaboration between the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Durham University, Medical Detection Dogs (MDD), and Arctech Innovation, is being widely circulated by IATA, the regulating authority for the airline industry, which is looking for ways to ease PCR -proofbottlenecks now being experienced at airports.
During the research, the dogs were able to identify which volunteers did and didn’t have the virus, meaning they are more accurate than lateral flow (PCR) tests.
More importantly, one dog can screen up to 300 people per hour, which is considerably faster than what a check-in agent looking though  PCR documents can handle now.
If a dog does detect the COVID-19 odour on a passenger,  a confirmatory PCR test is then ordered. The process would be fast, reliable, non-invasive, and will enable earlier self-isolation to prevent onward transmission.
“To correctly identify the odour over 94 per cent of the time and to know when there was no disease present in over 90 per cent of cases is remarkable,” says MDD Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Claire Guest.
“It proves the positive impact that dogs, with their rapid turnaround time, could have for mass screening alongside a confirmatory PCR test as we continue to battle the pandemic.”
Dogs were an obvious tool to explore having proved their efficacy with several other diseases, including malaria. They are also a familiar sight at many airports, usually checking for drugs or explosives.
“An important point is that dogs can detect very low levels of the virus,” says professor James Logan, the study lead. “It makes them very effective at screening mild and even asymptomatic cases.”
Detection is also specific to COVID-19. Logan reveals that the dogs in the trial successfully ignored people who had cold symptoms but not COVID-19.
With training taking just three months — much less if the dog is already skilled in odour detection — they could be deployed at airports around the world very quickly.
“Dogs can do this,” Logan insists. “That is the whole point of the study. People will be confident with dogs sniffing. It is a passive, calm measure.”
Airlines and airports are already onboard with this idea
And why not? Dogs have already proven they are our best friends in this pandemic.