Cologne –
Dogs can identify drugs, cash, DNA traces, but also diseases such as cancer and diabetes through body exhalation: The British government hopes to use the super-sniffers soon to sniff out people infected with the coronavirus.
This should then be used primarily as an early warning system at airports, train stations and borders. Or for screening at major public events. At best, the Covid-19 dogs work even with symptom-free patients, so the idea.
All of this is still a dream of the future. But six medical service dogs, Cocker Spaniel and Labradore (Asher, Storm, Norman, Digby, Jasper, Star) from the British association “Medical Detection Dogs” are now completing the basic training for “Covid-19 dogs”.
British government trains six “Covid-19 dogs”
Scientists from the renowned London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the University of Durham are leading the project, with a state grant of 560,000 euros. The dogs are trained with olfactory samples from up to 3250 people who are healthy, asymptomatic or infected with the Sars-CoV-2 virus.
“We don’t yet know if Covid-19 has a special smell, but we do know that other respiratory diseases change body odor,” says LSHTM study leader Prof. James Logan.
But he is convinced: “If there is this smell typical of Covid 19, dogs will be able to recognize it.” After eight to ten weeks of training, the Covid 19 dogs should be able to use their up to 220 million olfactory cells Scan up to 250 people per hour for this special fragrance.
Pleasing pilot study: dogs sniff out corona urine samples
The approach has been given a tailwind by the team’s previous successful work with fragrance samples from people infected with malaria, and a Finnish pilot study published in mid-May.
Read more here: Many are unsure – Can my dog infect me with the corona virus?
Specially trained dogs were able to accurately differentiate urine samples from Covid 19 patients from urine samples from healthy people.
“It was fantastic to see how quickly the dogs learned to recognize this new smell,” said study leader Anna Hielm-Björkman from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Helsinki.
Psychologist Claire Guest: Dogs can sniff out “illness”
It is not yet known what exactly the dogs sniff in urine and other patient samples as typical, how long the as yet unknown odor signature lasts after surviving infection.
“The dogs are probably more likely to smell the disease and the changes in the organism than the virus itself,” speculates psychologist Claire Guest, co-founder of the British “Medical Detection Dogs” on “Spiegel Online”.
In places where large crowds are in circulation, however, they could make a “reliable pre-selection”. If the helper strikes the dog, the person could be tested for the virus using conventional methods.
“There are many restrictions”
Prof. Benjamin Lamp from the Institute of Virology at the Justus Liebig University Gießen is reluctant to EXPRESS. He knows many animal disease studies and says: “It is quite possible that dogs and other animals can detect Covid-19 infections from the smell of the patient. But there are many restrictions. ”
Read more here: Corona – New study shows what many Asian countries have done right
“Even with chronic infectious diseases, the animals only recognize a fraction of the infections, for example 60 to 70 percent with tuberculosis. You have to expect six months to two years of training, which costs a five-figure sum, ”says Prof. Lamp.
Six dogs are trained to be corona sniffers in the UK.
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Medical detection dogs / Gov.uk
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“The Covid 19 patients are also contagious to other people even before the actual onset of the disease, which the animal may perceive.” Frequent false positive reports from the animals could cause major ethical problems.
“The dogs are only used if there is strong scientific evidence,” the British government does not yet want to set a start date for the Covid 19 dogs at borders and train stations.
German dogs could also be trained soon
Nevertheless, assistance dog trainers in Germany are currently receiving advice from virologists and veterinarians. Petra Köhler from Bad Kreuznach explains that smell samples are not a contagious problem for humans and animals.
She heads the Covid-19 dogs working group at the Assistance Dog Center Germany. The 33-year-old expressly supports the project “to make the world a little easier for everyone”.
In “a few months”, a nationwide volunteer assignment is planned, reveals colleague Luca Barrett on EXPRESS request. If the federal government grants the permits, work must be carried out under high security level 3 because of the virus.
If Corona’s dogs were 90 percent correct, that would be a good approach to diagnosis, says Claire Guest of “Medical Detection Dogs”.
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