Covid-Sniffing Dogs Are Accurate but Face Hurdles for Widespread Use

Logistics, cost and official standards are needed for the dogs to fulfill their potential in medical fields.

Dog noses are great Covid-19 detectors, according to numerous laboratory studies, and Covid sniffing dogs have already started working in airports in other countries and at a few events in the United States, like a Miami Heat basketball game. But some experts in public health and in training scent dogs say that more information and planning are needed to be certain they are accurate in real life situations. “There are no national standards” for scent dogs, according to Cynthia M. Otto, director of the Penn Vet Working Dog Center at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine and one of the authors of a new paper on scent dog use in Covid detection.