Klíny (Czech Republic) (AFP)
In a dog training center housed in a simple container in the snowy village of Kliny in the Czech mountains, Renda, Cap and Laky have a new job to do to fight the coronavirus epidemic.
They sniff six containers containing either a piece of tissue impregnated with the smell of patients with Covid-19, or people not affected, or false samples, and must designate that of a sick person.
"Good boy!" Exclaims Lenka Vlachova, a dog trainer working in the Prague fire brigade, as Renda, a German hunting terrier, sits near a positive sample, stirring her mouth. tail.
The team of trainers who work in their free time report a 95% success rate in detection tests.
"The study aims to verify the ability of dogs to detect Covid-19 and to generate a method allowing the use of trained dogs to fight the pandemic," project leader Gustav Hotovy told AFP, "La method should also work with other diseases, even more deadly than Covid-19 ".
“At the end of the day, we should be able to detect a lot of people in a very short time with a trained dog,” he said.
Ms. Vlachova told AFP that the first study confirming that dogs were able to detect biological tissue attacked by a virus was conducted in the United States about ten years ago.
"The virus changes human tissue, affecting a person's scent signature," she says.
Mr Hotovy, a retired dog handler whose team began training the dogs last August, said the signature changes "so much that it is immediately noticeable to the dogs."
- 100% success?
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The samples used are obtained simply by rubbing a piece of cotton against the patient's skin.
The team must then ensure that the sample is virus-free to prevent the dogs from catching the disease.
Using the same sampling method, a Finnish team used dogs for tests at Helsinki airport, saying their dogs could detect the virus with almost 100% success.
According to Ms. Vlachova, the Czechs would like to partner with the Finns or with French and German teams working on similar projects.
Unlike their Western peers, the Czech team works in their spare time and relies on the meager financial means provided by a local dog food manufacturer.
- "Look for Charlie" -
Dog specialist Katerina Jancarikova says human tissue infected with the virus is "just a small fragment of the general scent, part of the dog puzzle".
"It's like looking for Charlie," she said, referring to a series of children's books in which a little character, dressed in a sweatshirt with white and red stripes, is to be found in the pictures. a huge crowd.
According to Ms. Jancarikova any dog can be trained in detection as long as it is cooperative.
As Vlachova drives Renda back to the van, Mr. Hotovy walks into the training center with a giant schnauzer named Laky who eagerly sniffs the containers, placed in a different order, before easily identifying the positive.
The dogs had had the same reaction when they had been to a nearby house where a guest who had tested positive for Covid-19 had stayed. They immediately jumped onto his bed with the same happy reaction they show on a positive sample in the center, ”he said.
© 2021 AFP