Sniffer Dogs are being trained to sniff out Coronavirus

Dogs are trained to use their sense of smell to find different kinds of stuff, from drugs, animals, firearms, humans, explosives, plants, and even cancer. They have been used for centuries for their sense of smell, and their use in detecting sickness has become very popular in recent years. From the moment of their birth, dogs have a wonderful sense of smell, although newborn puppies cannot see, but they can still sense their mother's smell and warmth and locate her easily. Their sense of smell improves as they grow and develop to the point that some say it is up to a million times better than humans.

Dogs have already been trained to detect diseases like Parkinson's, cancer, and bacterial infections, and researchers believe that the coronavirus can also give off an odor that dogs can pick up. Over the next few weeks, medical detection dogs will work in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and Durham University to try to train dogs to sniff out the disease. These dogs could be used to detect cases of COVID-19 at airports within six weeks after researchers began a project to see if dogs can smell the virus.

Extensive testing of the new Coronavirus is an important weapon against the epidemic, as we have seen in countries such as South Korea, which have been able to significantly level the curve and Germany, which is testing an average of 500,000 people weekly. COVID-19 test can help authorities get a better idea of the number of active cases in hot areas and provide early treatment to everyone testing positive, particularly the elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions.

The problem that many countries have to face is that there are not sufficient test kits in circulation. That is why it will be a welcome development if dogs can sniff out infected people and identify them in a crowd. The head of LSHTM Disease Control, Professor James Logan, said that research has shown that dogs can detect malaria infection by smell with a level of accuracy that is beyond the World Health Organization standards for a diagnostic.

Although, that does not mean that your furry pals will be as good as identifying a specific smell of the new coronavirus. But if they are, they can be used in all kinds of situations to spot out potential carriers within large groups of people. Then the dog test will be confirmed by a valid COVID-19 test.