A team of researchers from the United Kingdom is training dogs to sniff out people who have contracted COVID-19. They hope that once the dogs have proven they can identify the virus, they can be sent to airports to help health officials locate and quarantine any asymptomatic people infected with the coronavirus.
"The basic idea is we can screen travelers innocently coming into this country who may be carrying Covid-19, detect those people and isolate them from the rest of the community," Steve Lindsay, a public health entomologist at the UK's Durham University told CNN.
Lindsay said that they have six labradors and cocker spaniels and are teaching them to distinguish between the smell of a healthy person and a person who has been infected. To do this, the researchers have healthy people as well as those infected with COVID-19 wear masks and nylon socks for a few hours.
The dogs are then tasked with correctly identifying the samples from patients who have contracted the coronavirus. If they succeed, they are given a treat.
In the United States, a team of researchers in Pennsylvania has been putting about 100 dogs and their handlers through their paces as they try to determine if the canines can successfully detect the scent of COVID-19. They call themselves the KOVID-19 Detection Task Force and hope to pick ten dogs that will be sent to various public places, such as courthouses and airports, to help health officials detect the virus.
"Hopefully, this will prevent a second peak and enable precious NHS resources to be used where most needed," Dr. Claire Guest, CEO, and co-founder of Medical Detection Dogs said in a statement. "We are incredibly proud that a dog's nose could once again save many lives."
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