Preliminary accuracy of COVID-19 odor detection by canines and HS-SPME-GC-MS using exhaled breath samples

Mendel, Julian; Frank, Kelvin; Edlin, Lourdes; Hall, Kelley; Webb, Denise; Mills, John; Holness, Howard K.; Furton, Kenneth G.; Mills, DeEtta

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, since its initial outbreak in Wuhan, China has led to a worldwide pandemic and has shut down nations. As with any outbreak, there is a general strategy of detection, containment, treatment and/or cure. The authors would argue that rapid and efficient detection is critical and required to successful management of a disease. The current study explores and successfully demonstrates the use of canines to detect COVID-19 disease in exhaled breath. The intended use was to detect the odor of COVID-19 on contaminated surfaces inferring recent deposition of infectious material from a COVID-19 positive individual. Using masks obtained from hospitalized patients that tested positive for COVID-19 disease, four canines were trained and evaluated for their ability to detect the disease. All four canines obtained an accuracy >90% and positive predictive values ranging from ∼73 to 93% after just one month of training.