British researchers will try to train dogs to detect the new coronavirus and identify sick people in order to help curb the spread of the disease, a specialist association announced on Friday. The association Medical Detection Dogs explained working in this direction with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the University of Durham.
The three partners "have started preparations to train dogs intensively so that they are ready in six weeks to provide a rapid and non-invasive diagnosis towards the end of the epidemic". They also contacted the government to explain how the man's best friend could be a valuable ally in the fight against the pandemic.
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In particular, identify contaminated travelers
The association, which has already trained canines to detect diseases such as cancer, Parkinson's disease and bacterial infections, explains that the process would be the same to teach dogs to spot Covid-19. It will involve making them sniff samples and teaching them to report when they find it. Dogs are also able to detect subtle changes in skin temperature, and could potentially indicate if someone has a fever.
Once trained, dogs could be used to identify travelers infected with the virus when they arrived in the country or be deployed in other public spaces. "In principle, we are sure that dogs can detect Covid-19. We are now studying how we can safely capture the smell of the virus from patients and present it to dogs," said Claire Guest, director and co-founder of Medical Detection Dogs, cited in a press release.
"The goal is for dogs to be able to screen anyone, including those who don't have symptoms and tell us if they need to be tested," she said. According to Professor Steve Lindsay of the University of Durham, "if the research is successful, we could use dogs to detect Covid-19 at airports at the end of the epidemic to quickly identify people with the virus. would help prevent the reoccurrence of the disease after controlling the current epidemic. "
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