UltimaTexCS Posted April 18, 2021 Share Posted April 18, 2021 Soco, the German Army Shepherd who sits when he smells covid-19. Dogs trained to detect Covid were able to identify 96% of infections, according to a study. Poncho, a two-and-a-half-year-old Labrador Retriever, was one of the dogs trained in the study to detect coronavirus by sniffing urine samples. Poncho, a two-and-a-half-year-old Labrador Retriever, was one of the dogs trained in the study to detect the coronavirus. coronavirus sniffing urine samples.Pat Nolan / UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA Various studies have shown that the smell of dogs can be a useful tool against coronavirus by being able to detect the disease, with a high level of precision, in samples of saliva and sweat. New research has also found that trained dogs can also detect, with 96% accuracy, SARS-CoV-2 in urine samples, where the viral load is usually lower. The study, conducted by the University of Pennsylvania and published this week in the journal PLOS One, trained eight Labradors and a Belgian Malinois to learn how to identify urine samples taken from SARS-CoV-2 positive patients. After three weeks of training, all the dogs were able to identify SARS-CoV-2 positive samples with 96% accuracy, the researchers explain in their study. "It's not an easy thing to ask dogs for," said Cynthia Otto, lead author of the study and director of the Center for Working Dogs at the University of Pennsylvania College of Veterinary Medicine. "Dogs must be specific when it comes to detecting the scent of infection, but they must also generalize the background odors of different people: men and women, adults and children, people of different ethnicities and geographies," Otto explains. As this is an initial study, the researchers continue to work to translate this experiment into real-life applications. "The training should be done very carefully and, ideally, with many samples," they say in the statement from the University of Pennsylvania. This study seeks to join other current works that Otto and her team are developing, such as the so-called "T-shirt study". In this experiment, the dogs are being trained to detect whether a person is infected with SARS-CoV-2 or vaccinated, based on the smells left on their shirts worn overnight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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