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Heliyon

Title:		Sensitivity and specificity of in vivo COVID-19 screening by detection dogs: Results of the C19-Screendog multicenter study
Author(s):		Soggiu F; Sabbatinelli J; Giuliani A; Benedetti R; Marchegiani A; Sgarangella F; Tibaldi A; Corsi D; Procopio AD; Calgaro S; Olivieri F; Spaterna A; Zampieri R; Rippo MR; group C;
Address:		"Dipartimento di Prevenzione, ATS Sardegna, Italy. Progetto Serena APS, Cinto Caomaggiore, Italy. Department of Clinical and Molecular Sciences, DISCLIMO, Universita Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy. AST, Macerata, Italy. School of Biosciences and Veterinary Medicine, University of Camerino, Matelica, Italy. Clinical Laboratory and Molecular Diagnostic, IRCCS INRCA, Ancona, Italy"
Journal Title:		Heliyon
Year:		2023
Volume:		20230425
Issue:		5
Page Number:		e15640 -
DOI:		10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15640
ISSN/ISBN:		2405-8440 (Print) 2405-8440 (Electronic) 2405-8440 (Linking)
Abstract:		"Trained dogs can recognize the volatile organic compounds contained in biological samples of patients with COVID-19 infection. We assessed the sensitivity and specificity of in vivo SARS-CoV-2 screening by trained dogs. We recruited five dog-handler dyads. In the operant conditioning phase, the dogs were taught to distinguish between positive and negative sweat samples collected from volunteers' underarms in polymeric tubes. The conditioning was validated by tests involving 16 positive and 48 negative samples held or worn in such a way that the samples were invisible to the dog and handler. In the screening phase the dogs were led by their handlers to a drive-through facility for in vivo screening of volunteers who had just received a nasopharyngeal swab from nursing staff. Each volunteer who had already swabbed was subsequently tested by two dogs, whose responses were recorded as positive, negative, or inconclusive. The dogs' behavior was constantly monitored for attentiveness and wellbeing. All the dogs passed the conditioning phase, their responses showing a sensitivity of 83-100% and a specificity of 94-100%. The in vivo screening phase involved 1251 subjects, of whom 205 had a COVID-19 positive swab and two dogs per each subject to be screened. Screening sensitivity and specificity were respectively 91.6-97.6% and 96.3-100% when only one dog was involved, whereas combined screening by two dogs provided a higher sensitivity. Dog wellbeing was also analyzed: monitoring of stress and fatigue suggested that the screening activity did not adversely impact the dogs' wellbeing. This work, by screening a large number of subjects, strengthen recent findings that trained dogs can discriminate between COVID-19 infected and healthy human subjects and introduce two novel research aspects: i) assessement of signs of fatigue and stress in dogs during training and testing, and ii) combining screening by two dogs to improve detection sensitivity and specificity. Using some precautions to reduce the risk of infection and spillover, in vivo COVID-19 screening by a dog-handler dyad can be suitable to quickly screen large numbers of people: it is rapid, non-invasive and economical, since it does not involve actual sampling, lab resources or waste management, and is suitable to screen large numbers of people"
Keywords:
Notes:		"PubMed-not-MEDLINESoggiu, Francesca Sabbatinelli, Jacopo Giuliani, Angelica Benedetti, Riccardo Marchegiani, Andrea Sgarangella, Francesco Tibaldi, Alberto Corsi, Daniela Procopio, Antonio Domenico Calgaro, Sara Olivieri, Fabiola Spaterna, Andrea Zampieri, Roberto Rippo, Maria Rita eng England 2023/05/30 Heliyon. 2023 Apr 25; 9(5):e15640. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15640. eCollection 2023 May"