Dogs, as you may know, have a better sense of smell than us, by at least 10,000 times. Dogs can sniff out the novel coronavirus with a remarkable 94 percent accuracy rate — raising the possibility of instant tests at sporting events and airports, according to a new study.

Canine handlers trained eight dogs from Germany’s Armed Forces to detect human saliva infected with COVID-19 from healthy saliva, according to the study, which was led by the University of Veterinary Medicine Hanover and the Hanover Medical School.

Researchers then set up samples from 1,000 people at random, ordered the dogs to pinpoint the infected ones — and found the animals were accurate 94 percent of the time, according to the study. The pooches were able to make the potentially life-saving distinction because the virus “completely changes” an infected person’s internal chemistry — giving their saliva a different scent, said one researcher involved.

“We think that the dogs are able to detect a specific smell of the metabolic changes that occur in those patients,” Maren von Koeckritz-Blickwede, a professor at the university who conducted the study, said in a Youtube video about the experiment. Watch the video here!

The study raises hope that dogs could ultimately be our saving grace & help prevent outbreaks through the use of lightning-fast testing at sporting events, airports and other mass gatherings, researchers said.

Source: New York Post