In late March, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK was conducting research to train dogs in order to smell the coronavirus. Similar studies have been seen in other countries, and recently, scientists are optimistic as they think they have found a way to detect the coronavirus within 10 seconds.
Certain diseases have a direct effect on the patient's odor and dogs are trained to recognize this specific odor. Doctors have previously treated Labradors and cocker spaniels to detect malaria and their accuracy has exceeded the World Health Organization standard.
Researchers from Finland said that their dogs need 10 seconds to smell the virus and the process works in almost 100% of cases. ET, Kossi, Miina and Valo are the four dogs that will "work" at Helsinki Airport to control passengers. Finland is the first country in Europe to develop this pilot program, which will cost 300,000 euros. Authorities told the Guardian the figure is significantly lower than laboratory-based testing.
The olfactory test is developed in a way that protects the health of the dogs involved. Passengers arriving at the airport collect their luggage and are then asked to use a napkin and wipe the skin. The napkin ends up in a container which is placed in the other cabin and the dogs smell it. If they spot the virus, they bark or lie down. Once this happens, the passenger will be given a free PCR test to verify the dog's assessment.
"It's very promising," said Anna Hielm-Björkman. "If it works, it can prove a good screening method in other places, like hospitals or public places."
In preliminary tests, the dogs identified the virus with almost 100% accuracy. Sometimes dogs even smelled the odor a few days before a patient developed symptoms. Scientists do not know what smell dogs can detect, but a study in France said in June that there was "very high evidence" that people's sweat with Covid-19 is different from the sweat of healthy people and dogs can put it notice the change.
Research into dogs that can smell the coronavirus is being conducted in countries other than the United Kingdom and Finland. Australia, France, Germany etc. have similar projects in progress, according to the Guardian. A report a few weeks ago said countries like the UAE, Argentina, Brazil and Belgium have started training dogs to detect the virus.
Sources: Guardian, BGR, CNN
