With "smears that smell sweaty" ... These animals discover "Corona" at first glance

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Trained police dogs were able to detect cases of infection with the Coronavirus during an experiment that players of the "KV Ostende" football club in Belgium underwent, more than a week before they were discovered by nasal swabs.

Both Belgium and Finland rely on trained sniffer dogs as a way to monitor cases of corona in travelers through airports.

In the Belgian experiment, samples of the sweat of the players' armpits were shown on dogs to sniff them and monitor any signs of infection, as previous studies revealed the presence of a distinctive "smell" from the first day of infection.

However, there are currently no diagnostic tools capable of identifying this odor, other than the highly sensitive sense of smell in trained dogs.

"De Standard" newspaper reported that dogs have an accuracy rate of 99.5%, which can be more accurate and sensitive compared to laboratory swabs (PCR) taken from the nose, which is currently considered the gold standard for testing for the Coronavirus.

The experiment supports the results of a recent study at a Finnish airport, in which dogs identified travelers who appeared to be in good health.

Travelers who were stopped by sniffer dogs underwent swab tests to see if they were carrying the virus, and the results were negative.

However, after a few days, the same people, who had assumed negative results, reported that they had developed symptoms of "Covid-19".

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