Dominique Grandjean Clothilde Lecoq Julien, Capucine Gallet , Vinciane Roger and Riad Sarkis
Olfactory detection dogs are an alternative method, for COVID-19 testing and screening, in order to detect specific Volatile Organic Compounds generated by the SARS-CoV-2 infection. Several research teams are working on the subject and already demonstrated high levels of sensitivity and specificity of the “K9 COVID-19 test” . The overall success reported by the summarized studies is comparable to the standard RT-PCR results and higher than those with antigenic tests.
Therefore, even if further researches are already conducted, correctly trained and validated dogs could be deployed to non-intrusively screen and identify persons infected with SARS-CoV-2 in mass testing or pre-testing in airports, senior care facilities, universities, public events, etc.