Purebreds Excel at COVID Diagnosis

By Amy Fernandez

More than a year into this nightmare with trillions of dollars poured into every imaginable possibility for testing, treatment, and prevention, and guess what? Dogs rise to the challenge once again! At this point, in terms of global solutions, they remain the most reliable indicators of COVID infection. Their 96.2 percent accuracy rate is far superior to PCR testing. Add in the fact that it takes zero time and costs practically nothing…well, okay, I think I made my point.

As previously reported in CC, a few experimental research programs began exploring the possibility for COVID detection dog training last year. At a time when hopes were rather dim on all fronts, this seemed like a long shot, but there was some valid logic supporting the concept. Although it doesn’t merit the media spotlight like drug and weapons detection, dogs have earned rock solid credentials in the subspecialty of medical diagnoses. Their uncanny ability to identify human diseases runs the gamut from malaria to cancer. We still don’t know exactly how they do it, but there is no question that they can be reliably trained to spot quite a few subclinical disorders.

Well, in this case, dogs have not only confirmed their ability to detect COVID-19, but they outperform everything else currently available. So much so that pilot programs launched last year have been expanded in countries such as France, Britain, Chile, Australia, Belgium, Germany, and Thailand, to name a few. Over here, it hasn’t attracted any government money, but private sources are actively utilizing these dogs to ensure safety at large events as they return.

With two months of training, a COVID dog can accurately ferret out infected individuals, including asymptomatic carriers, which represents a major source of ongoing spread. Epidemiologists admit that temperature screenings and other self-reporting methods have limited value anyway. But regardless of the symptoms or the COVID variant, the dogs have no trouble spotting infected individuals.

The scope of this worldwide threat virtually ensures that this endeavor will grow in the future. So far, Labs have been the breed of choice, which makes sense. They are famously receptive to training, and their presence is rarely perceived as scary or intimidating at airports or large events. Of course, there’s a reason why this breed constantly rates as everyone’s favorite purebred. And that’s my main point here. All of these programs are relying on consistent, predictable purebred stock for this experiment. I don’t need to emphasize the fact that there’s plenty riding on its success. And when it comes down to the wire, purebred dogs continue to show us that we just can’t do without them.

Short URL: http://caninechronicle.com/?p=203983

Posted by admin on Jun 8 2021. Filed under Current Articles, Featured, Health & Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.