Sniffer dogs as a screening/diagnostic tool for COVID-19: a proof of concept study
Abstract Background Sniffer dogs are able to detect certain chemical particles and are suggest to be capable of helping diagnose some medical conditions and complications, such as colorectal cancer, melanoma, bladder cancer, and even critical states such as hypoglycemia in diabetic patients. With th...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMC
2021-03-01
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| Series: | BMC Infectious Diseases |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-021-05939-6 |
| _version_ | 1818651486950785024 |
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| author | Esmaeil Eskandari Milad Ahmadi Marzaleh Hassan Roudgari Ramin Hamidi Farahani Amir Nezami-Asl Reza Laripour Helen Aliyazdi Arasb Dabbagh Moghaddam Ramin Zibaseresht Hossein Akbarialiabad Mojtaba Yousefi Zoshk Hamidreza Shiri Mahdi Shiri |
| author_facet | Esmaeil Eskandari Milad Ahmadi Marzaleh Hassan Roudgari Ramin Hamidi Farahani Amir Nezami-Asl Reza Laripour Helen Aliyazdi Arasb Dabbagh Moghaddam Ramin Zibaseresht Hossein Akbarialiabad Mojtaba Yousefi Zoshk Hamidreza Shiri Mahdi Shiri |
| author_sort | Esmaeil Eskandari |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background Sniffer dogs are able to detect certain chemical particles and are suggest to be capable of helping diagnose some medical conditions and complications, such as colorectal cancer, melanoma, bladder cancer, and even critical states such as hypoglycemia in diabetic patients. With the global spread of COVID-19 throughout the world and the need to have a real-time screening of the population, especially in crowded places, this study aimed to investigate the applicability of sniffer dogs to carry out such a task. Methods Firstly, three male and female dogs from German shepherd (Saray), German black (Kuzhi) and Labrador (Marco) breeds had been intensively trained throughout the classical conditioning method for 7 weeks. They were introduced to human specimens obtained from the throat and pharyngeal secretions of participants who were already reported positive or negative for SARS-COV-2 infection be RT-PCR. Each dog underwent the conditioning process for almost 1000 times. In the meantime another similar condition process was conducted on clothes and masks of COVID-19 patient using another three male and female dogs from Labrador (Lexi), Border gypsy (Sami), and Golden retriever (Zhico) breeds. In verification test for the first three dogs, 80 pharyngeal secretion samples consisting of 26 positive and 54 negative samples from different medical centers who underwent RT-PCR test were in a single-blind method. In the second verification test for the other three dogs, masks and clothes of 50 RT-PCR positive and 70 RT-PCR negative cases from different medical center were used. Results In verification test using pharyngeal secretion, the sniffer dogs’ detection capability was associated with a 65% of sensitivity and 89% of specificity and they amanged to identify 17 out of the 26 positive and 48 out of the 54 true negative samples. In the next verification test using patients’ face masks and clothes, 43 out of the 50 positive samples were correctly identified by the dogs. Moreover, out of the 70 negative samples, 65 samples were correctly found to be negative. The sensitivity of this test was as high as 86% and its specificity was 92.9%. In addition, the positive and negative predictive values were 89.6 and 90.3%, respectively. Conclusion Dogs are capable of being trained to identify COVID-19 cases by sniffing their odour, so they can be used as a reliable tool in limited screening. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-17T02:06:53Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b15f835c816a45cea2fb45aaa47217e6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1471-2334 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-17T02:06:53Z |
| publishDate | 2021-03-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMC Infectious Diseases |
| spelling | doaj.art-b15f835c816a45cea2fb45aaa47217e62022-12-21T22:07:41ZengBMCBMC Infectious Diseases1471-23342021-03-012111810.1186/s12879-021-05939-6Sniffer dogs as a screening/diagnostic tool for COVID-19: a proof of concept studyEsmaeil Eskandari0Milad Ahmadi Marzaleh1Hassan Roudgari2Ramin Hamidi Farahani3Amir Nezami-Asl4Reza Laripour5Helen Aliyazdi6Arasb Dabbagh Moghaddam7Ramin Zibaseresht8Hossein Akbarialiabad9Mojtaba Yousefi Zoshk10Hamidreza Shiri11Mahdi Shiri12Researcher Relief and rescue Organization and SK9 Dogs Training SchoolResearch Center for Emergency and Disaster Resilience, Red Crescent Society of the Islamic Republic of IranGenomics Research Centre, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical SciencesDepartment of Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, AJA University of Medical SciencesMedical Faculty of Aerospace and Subaquatic Medicine, AJA University of Medical SciencesResearcher Center for Educational Research in Medical Sciences, Iran University of Medical SciencesResearch Center for Emergency and Disaster Resilience, Red Crescent Society of the Islamic Republic of IranResearcher Department of Food Science, AJA University of Medical SciencesDepartment of Chemistry (Christchurch) and Department of Chemistry and Physics, University of Canterbury and Maritime University of Imam KhomeiniShiraz University of Medical SciencesDepartment of Pediatrics, AJA University of Medical SciencesIslamic Azad University, Share-Qods BranchResearcher Toxicology Research Center, AJA University of Medical SciencesAbstract Background Sniffer dogs are able to detect certain chemical particles and are suggest to be capable of helping diagnose some medical conditions and complications, such as colorectal cancer, melanoma, bladder cancer, and even critical states such as hypoglycemia in diabetic patients. With the global spread of COVID-19 throughout the world and the need to have a real-time screening of the population, especially in crowded places, this study aimed to investigate the applicability of sniffer dogs to carry out such a task. Methods Firstly, three male and female dogs from German shepherd (Saray), German black (Kuzhi) and Labrador (Marco) breeds had been intensively trained throughout the classical conditioning method for 7 weeks. They were introduced to human specimens obtained from the throat and pharyngeal secretions of participants who were already reported positive or negative for SARS-COV-2 infection be RT-PCR. Each dog underwent the conditioning process for almost 1000 times. In the meantime another similar condition process was conducted on clothes and masks of COVID-19 patient using another three male and female dogs from Labrador (Lexi), Border gypsy (Sami), and Golden retriever (Zhico) breeds. In verification test for the first three dogs, 80 pharyngeal secretion samples consisting of 26 positive and 54 negative samples from different medical centers who underwent RT-PCR test were in a single-blind method. In the second verification test for the other three dogs, masks and clothes of 50 RT-PCR positive and 70 RT-PCR negative cases from different medical center were used. Results In verification test using pharyngeal secretion, the sniffer dogs’ detection capability was associated with a 65% of sensitivity and 89% of specificity and they amanged to identify 17 out of the 26 positive and 48 out of the 54 true negative samples. In the next verification test using patients’ face masks and clothes, 43 out of the 50 positive samples were correctly identified by the dogs. Moreover, out of the 70 negative samples, 65 samples were correctly found to be negative. The sensitivity of this test was as high as 86% and its specificity was 92.9%. In addition, the positive and negative predictive values were 89.6 and 90.3%, respectively. Conclusion Dogs are capable of being trained to identify COVID-19 cases by sniffing their odour, so they can be used as a reliable tool in limited screening.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-021-05939-6DiagnosisScreenSniffer dogsCovid-19HealthPharyngeal secretions |
| spellingShingle | Esmaeil Eskandari Milad Ahmadi Marzaleh Hassan Roudgari Ramin Hamidi Farahani Amir Nezami-Asl Reza Laripour Helen Aliyazdi Arasb Dabbagh Moghaddam Ramin Zibaseresht Hossein Akbarialiabad Mojtaba Yousefi Zoshk Hamidreza Shiri Mahdi Shiri Sniffer dogs as a screening/diagnostic tool for COVID-19: a proof of concept study BMC Infectious Diseases Diagnosis Screen Sniffer dogs Covid-19 Health Pharyngeal secretions |
| title | Sniffer dogs as a screening/diagnostic tool for COVID-19: a proof of concept study |
| title_full | Sniffer dogs as a screening/diagnostic tool for COVID-19: a proof of concept study |
| title_fullStr | Sniffer dogs as a screening/diagnostic tool for COVID-19: a proof of concept study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sniffer dogs as a screening/diagnostic tool for COVID-19: a proof of concept study |
| title_short | Sniffer dogs as a screening/diagnostic tool for COVID-19: a proof of concept study |
| title_sort | sniffer dogs as a screening diagnostic tool for covid 19 a proof of concept study |
| topic | Diagnosis Screen Sniffer dogs Covid-19 Health Pharyngeal secretions |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-021-05939-6 |
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