Biomedical Scent Detection Dogs: Would They Pass as a Health Technology?

Koivusalo, Mirkka; Reeve, Catherine

doi:10.21071/pbs.v0i6.10785

Cited by 9 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 18 publications

(30 reference statements)

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“…The limit of detection for canines is at concentrations of one part per trillion, which is three orders of magnitude more sensitive than currently available instruments [ 12 ]. Consequently various studies have shown dogs‘abilities to detect with high rates of sensitivity and specificity [ 13 ] infectious and non-infectious diseases and conditions, such as different types of cancer [ 14 ], malaria [ 15 ], bacterial infections caused by e.g. Clostridium difficile or mastitis causing pathogens [ 16 , 17 ], hypoglycaemia in diabetics [ 18 ], and virus infections in cell cultures [ 12 , 19 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scent dog identification of SARS-CoV-2 infections in different body fluids

et al. 2021

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Background The main strategy to contain the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic remains to implement a comprehensive testing, tracing and quarantining strategy until vaccination of the population is adequate. Scent dogs could support current testing strategies. Methods Ten dogs were trained for 8 days to detect SARS-CoV-2 infections in beta-propiolactone inactivated saliva samples. The subsequent cognitive transfer performance for the recognition of non-inactivated samples were tested on three different body fluids (saliva, urine, and sweat) in a randomised, double-blind controlled study. Results Dogs were tested on a total of 5242 randomised sample presentations. Dogs detected non-inactivated saliva samples with a diagnostic sensitivity of 84% (95% CI: 62.5–94.44%) and specificity of 95% (95% CI: 93.4–96%). In a subsequent experiment to compare the scent recognition between the three non-inactivated body fluids, diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were 95% (95% CI: 66.67–100%) and 98% (95% CI: 94.87–100%) for urine, 91% (95% CI: 71.43–100%) and 94% (95% CI: 90.91–97.78%) for sweat, 82% (95% CI: 64.29–95.24%), and 96% (95% CI: 94.95–98.9%) for saliva respectively. Conclusions The scent cognitive transfer performance between inactivated and non-inactivated samples as well as between different sample materials indicates that global, specific SARS-CoV-2-associated volatile compounds are released across different body secretions, independently from the patient’s symptoms. All tested body fluids appear to be similarly suited for reliable detection of SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scent dog identification of SARS-CoV-2 infections in different body fluids

et al. 2021

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“…Moreover, a medical device or health technology requires an approval by national health organizations before permission for usage is granted. For such approval, ethical, social, organisational, and legal aspects are assessed alongside technological, economic and safety aspects, as well as clinical effectiveness [5].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Routinely, dogs nowadays are predominantly deployed for the identification of explosives, drugs, currencies, people, endangered animal species and parasites [4]. In recent years, medical scenting dogs have been trained to detect different medical conditions, but this area of work is still relatively in its infancy [5]. The use of odour detection as a diagnostic tool is of increasing interest in recent [5,6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In recent years, medical scenting dogs have been trained to detect different medical conditions, but this area of work is still relatively in its infancy [5]. The use of odour detection as a diagnostic tool is of increasing interest in recent [5,6]. This review will summarise information on odour origin and composition, neuroanatomy and physiology of the canine olfaction, different impacts on the olfactory sense and majorly current research outcomes critically evaluating the possible role of the dog as a biomedical detector.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Canine olfactory detection and its relevance to medical detection

Jendrny¹,

Twele²,

Meller³

et al. 2021

BMC Infect Dis

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The extraordinary olfactory sense of canines combined with the possibility to learn by operant conditioning enables dogs for their use in medical detection in a wide range of applications. Research on the ability of medical detection dogs for the identification of individuals with infectious or non-infectious diseases has been promising, but compared to the well-established and–accepted use of sniffer dogs by the police, army and customs for substances such as money, explosives or drugs, the deployment of medical detection dogs is still in its infancy. There are several factors to be considered for standardisation prior to deployment of canine scent detection dogs. Individual odours in disease consist of different volatile organic molecules that differ in magnitude, volatility and concentration. Olfaction can be influenced by various parameters like genetics, environmental conditions, age, hydration, nutrition, microbiome, conditioning, training, management factors, diseases and pharmaceuticals. This review discusses current knowledge on the function and importance of canines’ olfaction and evaluates its limitations and the potential role of the dog as a biomedical detector for infectious and non-infectious diseases.

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“…The limit of detection for canines is at concentrations of one part per trillion, which is three orders of magnitude more sensitive than currently available instruments 12 . Consequently various studies have shown dogs’ abilities to detect with high rates of sensitivity and specificity 13 infectious and non-infectious diseases and conditions, such as different types of cancer 14 , malaria 15 , bacterial infections caused by e.g. Clostridium difficile or mastitis causing pathogens 16,17 , hypoglycaemia in diabetics 18 , and virus infections in cell cultures 12,19 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scent dog identification of SARS-CoV-2 infections, similar across different body fluids

Jendrny

Twele

Meller

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Background: The main strategy to contain the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic remains to implement a comprehensive testing, tracing and quarantining strategy until vaccination of the population is adequate. Methods: Ten dogs were trained to detect SARS-CoV-2 infections in beta-propiolactone inactivated saliva samples. The subsequent cognitive transfer performance for the recognition of non-inactivated samples were tested on saliva, urine, and sweat in a randomised, double-blind controlled study. Results: Dogs were tested on a total of 5242 randomised sample presentations. Dogs detected non-inactivated saliva samples with a diagnostic sensitivity of 84% and specificity of 95%. In a subsequent experiment to compare the scent recognition between the three non-inactivated body fluids, diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were 95% and 98% for urine, 91% and 94% for sweat, 82%, and 96% for saliva respectively. Conclusions: The scent cognitive transfer performance between inactivated and non-inactivated samples as well as between different sample materials indicates that global, specific SARS-CoV-2-associated volatile compounds are released across different body secretions, independently from the patient's symptoms. Funding: The project was funded as a special research project of the German Armed Forces. The funding source DZIF- Fasttrack 1.921 provided us with means for biosampling.

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Biomedical Scent Detection Dogs: Would They Pass as a Health Technology?

Cited by 9 publications

References 18 publications

Scent dog identification of SARS-CoV-2 infections in different body fluids

Scent dog identification of SARS-CoV-2 infections in different body fluids

Canine olfactory detection and its relevance to medical detection

Scent dog identification of SARS-CoV-2 infections, similar across different body fluids

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