What if, in addition to being man's best friend, the dog was also an asset to his health?
According to a French study, the conclusions of which were published on Wednesday, the ability of dogs to detect the Covid-19 virus in human sweat gives "very promising" results.
The study, conducted from March 16 to April 9, compares two screening methods for Covid-19: the reference RT-PCR test on nasopharyngeal swab and the canine olfactory test, explain its initiators in a press release.
Just over 300 volunteers aged 6 to 76 participated, as well as nine trained dogs and French firefighters from the United Arab Emirates.
RESEARCH - Detection of Covid-19 by dogs: the study launched by EnvA and AP-HP, with the support of the Île-de-France Region and the ARS Île-de-France, provides very promising results.
▶ ️Learn more: https://t.co/WgrpG9RNAI pic.twitter.com/Wj8e8QBIFn
- National Veterinary School of Alfort - EnvA (@Env_Alfort) May 19, 2021
The participants - people who came to be tested in several Parisian screening centers - put compresses for two minutes under their armpits.
These compresses were then locked in jars and then sniffed by at least two different dogs, who were not in contact with the volunteers.
The detection experiment was done "blind", the handlers not knowing which compresses were positive.
"Excellent results"
The study was launched at the initiative of the National Veterinary School of Alfort (EnvA), as part of the “Nosaïs-Covid-19” project led by Professor Dominique Grandjean, and the clinical research unit Necker-Cochin of Professor Jean-Marc Tréluyer, at the Assistance publique - Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP).
Of the 335 people tested, 109 were positive on the baseline nasopharyngeal PCR test.
"The sensitivity of the canine olfactory test", that is to say the ability of the dog's nose to detect true positives, "is 97%" and "the specificity", the proportion of true negatives detected, "is 91% ”, the study concludes.
VIDEO.
Coronavirus: dogs trained to screen for Covid-19
"These are excellent results, comparable with those obtained with the reference test," Professor Tréluyer told AFP. "The test with dogs is not intended to replace it, but rather to target people who should benefit from virological screening and facilitate mass screening because of the rapid response of the dogs," he adds. -he. "These results scientifically confirm the ability of dogs to detect an olfactory signature of Covid-19", underlines the AP-HP, specifying that this study, not yet published in a medical journal, is "the first of this type carried out in international level ”. According to the Alfort National Veterinary School, the dogs were successful in detecting the English, South African and Brazilian variants. The Indian variant has not yet been tested?
More than 50 countries are working on this screening method and the WHO has even organized seminars to help group research.