Can Dogs Detect Coronavirus?
UK and US researchers are hoping they can help sniff it out
Dogs… They’re adorable, they’re our companions, and nowadays sometimes our co-workers. But they might also be our allies in the fight against Covid-19.
Researchers in the U.S and U.K. are working to see if dogs can change the game by sniffing it out in humans.
Dogs have a remarkable sense of smell. So good that they’re used to detect scents associated with all sorts of potential dangers from explosives and drugs to cancer, diabetic imbalances, Parkinson’s, seizures, and malaria.
A British organization, Medical Detection Dogs, is now working with a team of dogs, in the hope that they can train them to consistently sniff out the scent of Covid-19 in humans. If it works, these types of super-sniffer dogs could be used at airports and other high traffic areas to help detect those infected… screening up to 250 people per hour.
Research from Medical Detection Dogs has suggested that the dogs can be trained to detect the scent of disease at the equivalent dilution of one teaspoon of sugar in two Olympic-sized swimming pools of water.
The first phase of the trial will use scent samples from both infected and non-infected people to see if the dogs can predictably identify the presence of coronavirus in the samples.
Study leader Professor James Logan, head of the Department of Disease Control at The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said: “Our previous work has shown that malaria has a distinctive odour, and with Medical Detection Dogs, we successfully trained dogs to accurately detect malaria. This, combined with the knowledge that respiratory disease can change body odour, makes us hopeful that the dogs can also detect COVID-19.”
Here is the initial team of UK super sniffers: three cocker spaniels, a labradoodle, a labrador and a labrador/golden retriever mix.
In the United States, The University Of Pennsylvania’s School Of Veterinary Medicine is em-barking on a sniff detection study too
Eight dogs will train for 3 weeks. Through their training, the dogs are being introduced to biological samples from people who had COVID-19 and their detection performance will be monitored for accuracy. If they’re successful in the first phase of the training, they could be could start preliminary screenings with humans as early as July.
“That would be huge. That would be a game-changer,” said Dr. Cynthia Otto, a professor of working dog sciences and sports medicine, and the director of Penn Vet’s Working Dog Center. “This study will harness the dog’s extraordinary ability to support the nation’s COVID-19 surveillance systems, with the goal of reducing community spread.”
