Covid-19: The Bio-Detection dogs will ‘sniff out’ the virus

16 May 2020

The most revolutionary research is on. The Bio-Detection dogs are already trained to detect Covid-19 odours and in future, they will be able to sniff out the traces of the deadly virus. Earlier the mission has proved successful in tracing out certain cancers, malaria and Parkinson’s disease by such Medical Detection Dogs. It has also been proved earlier that respiratory diseases can change body odour. So it makes them hopeful that the dogs can also detect Covid-19.

The first phase of the trial has been commenced with £500,000 of the UK government funding at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, along with the charity and Durham University. Six dogs will then go through the training in the first phase.

Lord Bethell, the Innovation minister said he hoped the dogs could be able to provide “speedy results” as part of the government’s wider testing strategy.

It is said that the revolutionary “Covid-19 dogs” are made up of Labradors and cocker spaniels- the species that could be able to spot the virus in humans from the odour samples before symptoms appear. It is also expected that the bio-detection dogs of this kind, which could each screen up to 250 people per hour to detect Covid-19 in the future.

The first phase will involve collecting odour samples from those infected with coronavirus and those who are uninfected.

Dr Claire Guest, the co-founder and chief executive of charity and Durham University, said that she was optimistic that these Bio-Detection dogs will be able to find the odour of Covid-19.

If proved successfully, the dogs will then move into a second phase of the research to test them in live situations. (News Courtesy: BBC)