Scientific studies carried out in Europe test the detection of the coronavirus in dogs. The dog’s sense of smell has almost 300 million receptors. It is far superior to human smell. The latter has only around 5 million recipients. For this reason, dogs are trained to recognize coronavirus in people who may or may not have symptoms of the disease.
Specially selected and trained dogs are used. So far, they have been able to identify cancer and diabetes in humans. They also notice other substances such as drugs and explosives.
Tests on dogs that detect Covid 19 are carried out in Paris
Tests with dogs that can detect Covid 19 started at the Alfort Veterinary School in Paris. In collaboration with the staff of the Bégin de Saint Mandé hospital.
Human armpit sweat samples are used. These samples are presented to dogs that have been specially trained to detect Covid 19. In this case, it is a team of Belgian shepherds that was trained during a six-week training. But dog breeds are diverse.
If the expected result is achieved, there is a valuable method of detecting the disease. Beneficial because it is not an invasive method and also very fast. The first cases gave excellent results. An efficiency of 95% was obtained. The system is simple:
- The sweat of different people is put into a kind of metal funnel.
- They line up the dogs to perceive their sense of smell and identify the positive ones.
Other countries also do the same training
While this is not the only case that does the test. Different countries train dogs to detect coronavirus in humans. Finnish scientists also piloted dogs at the University of Helsinki to diagnose Covid 19. In this case, human urine is used as a means of identifying positives by the dog’s sense of smell.
The dogs were trained with the same training as in France. The results were surprising as they were just as reliable as the PCR tests.
Another example could be Germany. The Germans used the results of Finnish scientists. In this country, dogs also started training to detect the corona virus.
Similarly, studies on the earlier detection of coronavirus have started in the United Kingdom. They use trained dogs to detect Parkinson’s, malaria and cancer.
How can dogs recognize the disease?
It is not known what smell dogs recognize. However, it is known that Covid 19 does not only attack the lungs. It also damages the circulatory system, the kidneys and the endocrine system. Undoubtedly, these health problems must produce an odor that acute dog odor can recognize.
The same scientists also announce that they will soon be testing to allow the same trained dogs to identify the Covid 19 virus on different surfaces on which it can be deposited. This enables prior tracking of the locations that should be occupied by vulnerable people, as is the case with dormitories for older adults.
