Could your dog figure out if you have COVID faster than a PCR test?
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- With COVID rates continuing to increase, there could be a new weapon for detection and it has four legs.
We're talking about dogs, of course, and their remarkable sense of smell. New research shows some are better at detecting COVID than standard testing.
They are our companions and best friends, and now a growing number of studies show dogs have the power to detect the COVID-19 virus.
Some of that research is at the Penn Vet Working Dogs Center and now it's expanding to a growing number of institutions
"One of the investigators from Columbia came out and said that our PCR is no longer the gold standard. It's the dog," University of California Santa Barbara Professor Tommy Dickens said.
In the new research, scientists reviewed dozens of studies from around the world.
The findings show that trained COVID-19 scent dogs are as effective or even better than PCR tests as well as at-home antigen tests.
The dogs can detect the virus faster in patients positive for infection but not showing symptoms yet, as well as patients who do not develop symptoms later; which could help stop the spread of the virus.
"The diseases increase when you're in a population basically exponentially. So the longer the wait is between your test and your result, that that's a latent period," Dickey said. "During that time you're running around spreading COVID and you don't know it. The dogs with a direct sniff will be done in seconds."
In some of the studies, trained dogs give a person a quick sniff, then sit down to signal the presence of COVID. in other cases dogs are given sweat samples to smell.
Researchers say the trained scent dogs can also differentiate COVID-19 from other respiratory virus infections, which could revolutionize the medical industry.
The research from the Working Dog Groups -- that was first published in April of 2021 -- is now investigating to see if the dogs can figure out if people who are positive or negative for COVID, or if they've been vaccinated.
