Researchers Train Dogs To Sniff Out Covid Patients, 94% Accuracy Found - Could Be Useful At Airports

<p><strong>New Delhi: </strong>In what may surprise many, a new detector for identifying the virus has come to the fore amid the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic with a study suggesting that sniffer dogs can be trained to identify the people infected with the deadly virus by their odour.</p> <p>These dogs could soon be used at the airports or mass gathering venues to pick up the &ldquo;corona odour&rdquo; of Covid-19 infected people, Reuters reported researchers at the London School of Tropical Medicine, who presented a new study as saying.</p> <p>The dogs were even able to sniff out asymptomatic or mild Covid-19 cases besides cases caused by a mutant variant that emerged in the UK during the study, which involved 3,500 odour samples donated in the form of unwashed socks or T-shirts worn by the public and healthcare workers, according to the researchers, led by disease control specialist James Logan.</p> <p>&ldquo;The highest-performing dogs in the trial detected coronavirus odour in the samples with up to 94.3% sensitivity, meaning a low risk of false-negative results, and up to 92% specificity,&rdquo; the researchers said.</p> <p><strong>ALSO READ |</strong>&nbsp;<span style="color: #e03e2d;"><strong><a style="color: #e03e2d;" href="https://ift.tt/3vwgC6h" target="_blank" rel="noopener">India Coronavirus Cases: 1.96 Lakh Covid Cases, 3,511 Deaths Recorded In Past 24 Hrs, Lowest In A Month</a></strong></span></p> <p>&ldquo;Dogs could be a great way to screen a large number of people quickly and prevent Covid-19 from being re-introduced into the UK,&rdquo; Reuters quoted Steve Lindsay, a professor at Durham University&rsquo;s department of biosciences who worked on the study, as saying.</p> <p>A major advantage of sniffer dogs over other screening methods is their &ldquo;incredible speed and good accuracy among large groups of people&rdquo;, the researchers said, adding similar pilot projects involving dogs are underway in Germany, Chile and Finland.</p> <p>The Indian Army had earlier trained canines to detect Covid-19 virus for a quick and a real time situation for easier movements of troops.</p>

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