A pair of springer spaniels working at Vancouver General Hospital are remarkably good at sniffing out contaminated areas where dangerous bacteria are lurking, a study shows. And their success appears to be reducing infections.
VGH called in the dogs three years ago and they alerted 391 times to odours from C. diff during 659 searches at the hospital from May 1, 2017, to Oct. 31, 2018, according to the study published today in the Canadian Journal of Infection Control.
C. diff — full name Clostridium difficile — is a leading cause of potentially deadly, infectious diarrhea in health facilities.
Their hyperacute sense of smell means the dogs can find germs lingering on surfaces even after hospital areas have been cleaned, thus leading to extra disinfection.
“It is a surprisingly high count for alerts. But it’s not just the number that’s surprising, it’s where the dogs made their alerts,” said Dr. Elizabeth Bryce, a Vancouver Coastal Health medical microbiologist and co-author of the study. VGH is a Coastal Health hospital.
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