In Great Britain, trials are being carried out for sniffer dogs to detect coronavirus patients. The latter could be operational within six weeks.
Specialized in the field of canine disease detection, the Medical Detection Dogs, is currently training dogs to detect people, asymptomatic or not, affected by Covid- 19. The organization suggests that its animals would be able, after rigorous training, to participate in the fight against SARS-Cov-2, the virus responsible for the disease. Dogs are already trained in the detection of malaria, breast or prostate cancer or even Parkinson's disease, with a success rate of over 90%.
"They are sensors with eyes and very beautiful ears", explained Dr. Claire Guest, director and co-founder of the organization, during the 2018 forum Purina Better with Pets.
The Medical Detection Dogs will work in partnership with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the University of Durham.
"Dogs looking for Covid-19 would be trained in the same way as dogs that the body has already trained to detect diseases such as cancer, Parkinson's disease and bacterial infections: by sniffing samples (…) and indicating when they found the smell. They are also able to detect subtle changes in skin temperature so they could possibly indicate if someone has a fever"says the Medical Detection Dogs.
"We know that other respiratory diseases like Covid-19 affect our body odor, so there is a very good chance that dogs will be able to detect it.", notes Professor James Logan, head of the disease control department at the LSHTM.
Rigorous training
Dog specialists believe that they can prepare dogs in six weeks, with the key to a rapid and non-invasive test which will therefore be available after the epidemic peak. They are not intended to be used by human best friends during confinement but rather afterwards, during the deconfinement phase in order to help prevent the reoccurrence of the disease.
"If the search is successful, we could use Covid-19 detection dogs at airports at the end of the epidemic to quickly identify people with the virus.", said Professor Steve Lindsay of the University of Durham in a press release.
"In principle, we are sure that dogs can detect Covid-19. We are now examining how we can safely capture the smell of the virus from patients and present it to dogs. The goal is that dogs can detect n "Anyone, including asymptomatic people. It would be quick, efficient and non-invasive and allow the limited testing resources of the National Health Service to be used only where they are really needed," notes Dr. Claire Guest.
According to the researchers, the animals could sort up to 250 people per hour.