Dogs in US and UK are being trained to sniff out COVID-19
As the world is fighting against the coronavirus pandemic, could dogs become a revolution in the COVID-19 crisis by emerging as a new diagnostic tool? Well, the experts have faith. As per the report, the dogs are being trained in the US and the UK to sniff out the COVID-19.
According to the Washington Post, eight Labrador retrievers are being trained under a University of Pennsylvania research project to find out whether canines have the capability to detect an odour associated with the coronavirus. Similarly, the efforts are being made at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where researchers previously showed that the dogs could identify malaria infections in humans.
If the training gets successful, then dogs might be used in a sort of "canine surveillance" corps. They can screen people at airports, businesses, or hospitals. It will not be a surprise if the dogs pass the test of detecting SARS-CoV-2. Besides drugs, explosives, and contraband food items, dogs can sniff out malaria, cancers, and even a bacterium ravaging Florida's citrus groves.
Reportedly, the researchers have found that viruses have specific odours, said Cynthia M. Otto, director of the Working Dog Center at Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine. James Logan, head of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine's disease control department, called dogs a "new diagnostic tool" that "could revolutionize our response to COVID-19."
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The dogs will be trained using urine and saliva samples collected from patients who tested positive for the pandemic and negative at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
-PTC News
