RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Canine real-time detection of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the context of a mass screening event
JF BMJ Global Health
JO BMJ Global Health
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP e010276
DO 10.1136/bmjgh-2022-010276
VO 7
IS 11
A1 ten Hagen, Nele Alexandra
A1 Twele, Friederike
A1 Meller, Sebastian
A1 Wijnen, Lisa
A1 Schulz, Claudia
A1 Schoneberg, Clara
A1 Kreienbrock, Lothar
A1 von Köckritz-Blickwede, Maren
A1 Osterhaus, Albert
A1 Boeck, Anna-Lena
A1 Boeck, Konstantin
A1 Bonda, Viktoria
A1 Pilchová, Veronika
A1 Kaiser, Franziska Karola
A1 Gonzalez Hernandez, Mariana
A1 Ebbers, Hans
A1 Hinsenkamp, Julia
A1 Pink, Isabell
A1 Drick, Nora
A1 Welte, Tobias
A1 Manns, Michael Peter
A1 Illig, Thomas
A1 Puyskens, Andreas
A1 Nitsche, Andreas
A1 Ernst, Christiane
A1 Engels, Michael
A1 Schalke, Esther
A1 Volk, Holger Andreas
YR 2022
UL http://gh.bmj.com/content/7/11/e010276.abstract
AB Introduction Previous research demonstrated that medical scent detection dogs have the ability to distinguish SARS-CoV-2 positive from negative samples with high diagnostic accuracy. To deploy these dogs as a reliable screening method, it is mandatory to examine if canines maintain their high diagnostic accuracy in real-life screening settings. We conducted a study to evaluate the performance of medical scent detection dogs under real-life circumstances.Methods Eight dogs were trained to detect SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR-positive samples. Four concerts with a total of 2802 participants were held to evaluate canines’ performance in screening individuals for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Sweat samples were taken from all participants and presented in a line-up setting. In addition, every participant had been tested with a SARS-CoV-2 specific rapid antigen test and a RT-qPCR and they provided information regarding age, sex, vaccination status and medical disease history. The participants’ infection status was unknown at the time of canine testing. Safety measures such as mask wearing and distance keeping were ensured.Results The SARS-CoV-2 detection dogs achieved a diagnostic specificity of 99.93% (95% CI 99.74% to 99.99%) and a sensitivity of 81.58% (95% CI 66.58% to 90.78%), respectively. The overall rate of concordant results was 99.68%. The majority of the study population was vaccinated with varying vaccines and vaccination schemes, while several participants had chronic diseases and were under chronic medication. This did not influence dogs’ decisions.Conclusion Our results demonstrate that SARS-CoV-2 scent detection dogs achieved high diagnostic accuracy in a real-life scenario. The vaccination status, previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, chronic disease and medication of the participants did not influence the performance of the dogs in detecting the acute infection. This indicates that dogs provide a fast and reliable screening option for public events in which high-throughput screening is required.Data are available on reasonable request. The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are majorly included in the manuscript or uploaded as online supplemental information. Any additional data are available on request from the corresponding author on reasonable request.