Scientists: Dogs May Detect the Coronavirus in Humans

Some scientists think that specially trained dogs may be able to help win the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. They are hoping to train such dogs to detect the disease by sniffing it out in humans.

This strategy is not a new phenomenon. Dogs have been trained to detect various medical conditions, such as Parkinson's disease, diabetes, malaria, and cancer. Due to the need to test the coronavirus in a broader scale, researchers and scientists of the Durham University, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), and the non-profit organization Medical Detection Dogs have started to prepare to train dogs intensively for this purpose. They hope the dogs can be ready after six weeks.

LSHTM Department of Disease Control Head and Arthropod Control Product Test Centre (ARCTEC) director James Logan told the press that their previous work has demonstrated how dogs can detect odors of malaria-positive humans with extreme accuracy. It is even higher than the World Health Organization or WHO's standards for diagnostic tests.

Logan added that the use of odor detection in COVID-19 is in its infancy, and researchers do not know yet if it has a particular odor. However, he noted that some respiratory diseases alter human body odor, and they are hoping that COVID-19 also does. Once the researchers prove that it does, they can use dogs as a supplement to the testing efforts that are ongoing effort; the dogs can help "triage" a maximum of 250 individuals per hour using non-invasive detection or screening.

The UK-based charity Medical Detection Dogs are working with dogs in helping detect diseases or assist in managing many life-threatening conditions. It says that dogs will be trained in the same process that other detection dogs undergo. The dogs first sniff several samples, and they indicate specific scents they are asked to search.

The charity further explained how the dogs are then made to detect the same scent on humans, in the same manner, that a Medical Alert Assistance canine does. It shared a crowd-funding website link that the team uses to help launch and fund the project. Last Thursday, the campaign managed to get 102 backers with a total donation of $5,260.

Medical Detection Dogs co-founder and CEO Dr. Claire Guest says that they aim to train the dogs to detect the coronavirus even in asymptomatic people. They hope they can make a more informed decision if they need testing. She adds that the dogs can detect COVID-19 in principle. They are now aiming to see how they can safely acquire the disease's odor from positive patients to present to the dogs.

The researchers shared that dogs can detect subtle skin temperature changes, potentially being able to detect fever in patients. Trained dogs may, therefore, be utilized at road checkpoints and identify people with fever.

Durham University professor Steve Lindsay says they also hope that if they are successful here, they can further use the dogs to help prevent COVID-19 re-emergence after this pandemic is over.