Trained dogs were able to discriminate human saliva samples infected with COVID-19 from non-infected saliva samples with 94% accuracy, a Germany research study recently found, CNBC reported.

Dogs, whose smell receptors are 10,000 times more powerful than those of humans, have been trained to identify various diseases through sniffing, including cancer, malaria and viral infections.

Researchers in Germany decided to carry out a study to see if dogs could also sniff out the coronavirus. The researchers, from the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, the Hannover Medical School and the German Armed Forces, trained eight dogs from the Armed Forces for a week.

Prof. Dr. Maren von Köckritz-Blickwede, one of the researchers involved in the study, said that she believes the dogs are able to detect a change in smell due to the fact that the metabolic processes of coronavirus patients “completely change.”

“We think that the dogs are able to detect a specific smell of the metabolic changes that occur in those patients,” she said.

The researchers hope that dogs could be used one day to detect the disease in public areas to prevent mass outbreaks.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)