Milton Keynes (United Kingdom) (AFP)

Towards a "rapid and non-invasive diagnosis" ... and with a wet truffle? An association supported by British researchers is trying to train dogs to spot people carrying the new coronavirus, after several successful tests with other diseases.

"We believe that dogs can detect Covid-19 and that they will be able to screen hundreds of people very quickly to find out who should be tested and isolated," Claire Guest, founder and chief executive officer, told AFP. Medical Detection Dogs association.

In his training center in Milton Keynes, in the center of England, dogs are trained to recognize the smell of the virus among several samples. They must then report when they find it, before being rewarded.

"We have evidence that dogs can detect bacteria and other diseases, so we think this project will make a huge difference in the ability to control the spread of Covid-19," added Ms. Guest, whose association has already trained canines to detect cancer or Parkinson's disease.

She has been working for the past month in collaboration with researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the University of Durham.

Dogs can smell human smells with "extremely high accuracy," according to James Logan, head of the LSHTM disease control department.

There is therefore a "very good chance" that they will be able to detect Covid-19 in the same way, he added, judging that they could thus "revolutionize our response" in the face of the pandemic which has already killed more than 17,000 in British hospitals.

The team set itself the goal of training the animals in six weeks, in order to be able to quickly provide the health authorities with a "tool" for "rapid and non-invasive diagnosis".

Once trained, dogs can be used to identify travelers infected with the virus when they arrive in the country or be deployed in other public spaces.

According to an AFP count from official sources, the Covid-19 has contaminated more than 1,240,000 people worldwide. The actual number of infections could prove to be much higher, since many countries only test severe cases or patients requiring hospitalization.

© 2020 AFP