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- Title
Scent dog identification of SARS-CoV-2 infections in different body fluids.
- Authors
Jendrny, Paula; Twele, Friederike; Meller, Sebastian; Schulz, Claudia; von Köckritz-Blickwede, Maren; Osterhaus, Albertus Dominicus Marcellinus Eras; Ebbers, Hans; Ebbers, Janek; Pilchová, Veronika; Pink, Isabell; Welte, Tobias; Manns, Michael Peter; Fathi, Anahita; Addo, Marylyn Martina; Ernst, Christiane; Schäfer, Wencke; Engels, Michael; Petrov, Anja; Marquart, Katharina; Schotte, Ulrich
- Abstract
<bold>Background: </bold>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.<bold>Methods: </bold>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.<bold>Results: </bold>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.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>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.
- Publication
BMC Infectious Diseases, 2021, Vol 21, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
1471-2334
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1186/s12879-021-06411-1