Dogs join fight against COVID-19 by training to smell the virus

20 Apr 2020

Dogs join fight against COVID-19 by training to smell the virus

Dogs join fight against COVID-19 by training to smell the virusDogs have a very strong sense of smell. Human beings have been training them to help detect illegal drugs, bombs, and even people affected by natural disasters such as earthquakes.

Now, an organisation in England called Medical Detection Dogs is working to train dogs to detect and identify the smell of the COVID-19 virus.

What are the details of this new project?

Medical Detection Dogs is partnering with educational institutions to start trials of dogs for the job.
 	The organisation has previously trained dogs to smell and detect cancer, Parkinson’s disease, and most recently, malaria.
 	They are aiming to train dogs to be able to smell and detect the COVID-19 virus in people, even if they are not showing any symptoms. Then, these people would be tested for the virus.
 	Respiratory (breathing-related) diseases such as COVID-19 change the way we smell and so, the dogs could detect the change.

Training dogs to do this would make identifying sick people fast and effective and help limit the testing to only the people who really need it.

Here is a short video of a day in the life of sniffer dogs in airports in Europe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUpkL58zYwA

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