Covid-19, dogs could be the new testers of the virus

“Tester” dogs at the Finnish airport – Already in several countries, from the UK to Spain, from Finland to Australia, teams of researchers are training hundreds of canine noses. At the Finnish airport of Helsinki four Covid-19 sniffer dogs have begun work within a state-funded pilot program. Passengers do tampon the skin with a towel, then placed in a glass next to others that contain control odors inside. If the dog detects the virus, the passenger runs the quick test to verify the fact positivity.

A few weeks of training – According to the newspaper Guardian, any breed he may be able to carry out this “mission”. The duration of the training ranges from two to ten weeks. Dogs detect chemicals released from the organism and produced when the virus infects cells. The presence of these substances does not depend on whether the person has developed symptoms of the disease or not.

Nursing Home Screening – A study conducted by Professor Dominique Grandjean, of the national veterinary school of Alfort in France, reports that for the83% sometimes the eight dogs in the project have correctly identified sweat samples from Coronavirus patients. The goal is to apply the technique also in nursing homes: “We can have a trained nursing home dog who can check everyone every morning, just by walking,” said the professor.

German saliva study – In Germany, on the other hand, a project has been launched which examines samples of salivainstead of sweat. In a pilot study of eight dogs and 1,012 samples, the animals correctly identified Covid-positive samples on average 83% of the time and regularly identified Covid-negative samples 96% of the time.

It is clear that the gradual growth of dogs able to “smell” Covid would lead to an increase in the samples examined per day. In a short time, a test of wide-ranging screening and to a low cost.

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