sniffer Dogs can help in the fight against the pandemic. Capable of smell to identify asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus canine assistants are able to screen up to 250 people per hour.
In the UK launched a program to bring to the fight against COVID-19-sniffing dogs trained to “sniff out” the symptoms of coronavirus before painful symptoms appear in people.
About the possibility of bringing to the pandemic such assistants spoke back in March. Now, according to Daily Mail, this program from the Treasury allocated half a million pounds. In the case of test success dogs can sniff up to 250 people per hour to detect viruses.
the Dog, which is a cross between Labradors and Cocker spaniels, have already shown the ability to detect such dangerous diseases as cancer, malaria and Parkinson’s disease.
Now friends of man will undergo intensive training to be able to detect COVID-19 even before the onset of symptoms.
the Dogs will be trained using samples as infected with a coronavirus, and those who are not infected, since it is known that body odor in some respiratory diseases may change.
Studies have shown that dogs are able to smell the foul odor of the disease – even in such a proportion that the equivalent of one teaspoon of sugar dissolved in two Olympic pools!
the First phase of testing will be conducted by researchers from the London school of hygiene and tropical medicine in collaboration with the charity organization Medical Detection Dogs and the University of Durham.
co-founder and CEO of Medical Detection Dogs Dr Claire Guest is looking at this venture with optimism: “We are pleased that the government has provided us with the opportunity to demonstrate that dogs can play a role in the fight against COVID-19. They have the potential to help quickly checking people that can be vital in the future. We are confident that our dogs can detect the odor COVID-19 and then we move on to the second stage to test them in real situations, then we hope to work with other agencies for training a larger number of dogs. We are incredibly proud of the fact that a dog’s nose can again save a lot of lives.”
the Head of the Department of disease control School of hygiene and tropical medicine Professor James Logan also hopes for success. According to him, in the previous work of the special dogs were very successfully trained to accurately determine malaria: “This, combined with the realization that respiratory illness can change body odor, gives hope that dogs can also detect COVID-19. If successful, this approach could radically change the way of detectionI virus that can lead to verification of a larger number of people.”
British parliamentary Vice-Minister for innovation Bethell Lord says: “Dogs with the skills biodetection already detect certain types of cancer, and we believe that this innovation can give fast results as part of our broader strategy testing. Accuracy is very important, so this study will show us whether the dog is reliably detected by the COVID and stop it from spreading”.
