| Title: | Evaluation of canine detection of COVID-19 infected individuals under controlled settings |
| Author(s): | Chaber AL; Hazel S; Matthews B; Withers A; Alvergnat G; Grandjean D; Caraguel C; |
| Address: | "School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, University of Adelaide, Roseworthy, South Australia, Australia. Detector Dog Program, Operational Strategy and Coordination, Australian Border Force, Bulla, Australia. Department Special Operations, Metropolitan Fire Service South Australia, Adelaide, Australia. International Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Interior of the UAE, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Ecole Nationale Veterinaire d'Alfort, Universite Paris Est, Maisons-Alfort, France" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1865-1682 (Electronic) 1865-1674 (Print) 1865-1674 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is currently the standard diagnostic method to detect symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals infected with Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). However, RT-PCR results are not immediate and may falsely be negative before an infected individual sheds viral particles in the upper airways where swabs are collected. Infected individuals emit volatile organic compounds in their breath and sweat that are detectable by trained dogs. Here, we evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of dog detection against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Fifteen dogs previously trained at two centres in Australia were presented to axillary sweat specimens collected from known SARS-CoV-2 human cases (n = 100) and non-cases (n = 414). The true infection status of the cases and non-cases were confirmed based on RT-PCR results as well as clinical presentation. Across dogs, the overall diagnostic sensitivity (DSe) was 95.3% (95%CI: 93.1-97.6%) and diagnostic specificity (DSp) was 97.1% (95%CI: 90.7-100.0%). The DSp decreased significantly when non-case specimens were collected over 1 min rather than 20 min (p value = .004). The location of evaluation did not impact the detection performances. The accuracy of detection varied across dogs and experienced dogs revealed a marginally better DSp (p value = .016). The potential and limitations of this alternative detection tool are discussed" |
| Keywords: | Animals *COVID-19/diagnosis COVID-19 Testing Dogs Humans SARS-CoV-2 Sensitivity and Specificity Volatile Organic Compounds Covid-19 SARS-Co-2 canine detection detection dogs diagnostic accuracy diagnostic sensitivity diagnostic specificity screening tool; |
| Notes: | "MedlineChaber, Anne-Lise Hazel, Susan Matthews, Brett Withers, Alexander Alvergnat, Guillaume Grandjean, Dominique Caraguel, Charles eng Germany 2022/03/23 Transbound Emerg Dis. 2022 Sep; 69(5):e1951-e1958. doi: 10.1111/tbed.14529. Epub 2022 Apr 5" |
