In April, U.K. researchers were training dogs to detect the scent of COVID-19, hoping they could help stop its spread. Now, four Covid-19 sniffer dogs have begun work at Finland’s largest airport, Helsinki airport, in a state-funded pilot program which will last four months. Finnish researchers hope the scheme will provide a cheap, quick, and effective alternative method of testing people for coronavirus.
Anna Hielm-Björkman, who runs the trial, claims the dogs can detect coronavirus within 10 seconds, and the entire process takes under one minute to complete. “It’s very promising. If it works, it could prove a good screening method in other places,” she added. Some places that could benefit from this quick and efficient screening process include sporting or cultural events, care homes, hospitals, and other areas where large numbers of people congregate.
In preliminary tests at the University of Helsinki, dogs (previously successful in detecting cancer and diabetes) identified the virus with almost 100% accuracy, even days before a patient developed first symptoms.
How Does It Work?
Arriving international passengers will first collect their luggage, and they then are asked to dab their skin with a wipe and place it in a cup. In a separate booth, with sniffer dogs on duty, the cup containing the wipe is placed next to other beakers containing different control scents, and the dogs sniff away.
If the dog smells the virus, it will start pawing, yelping, or lying down. The passenger is then instructed to take a free polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, using a nasal swab, to confirm the dog’s verdict.
The dogs are being trained by a Finnish Association called Wise Nose, which specializes in training animals in scent detection. A total of 16 dogs are in training, 10 of which will eventually work at the airport, and four – Miina, Valo, Kossi, and ET– already started working in shifts of two, on September 24.
The pilot program is costing €300,000 (US$351,500), which authorities in Vantaa say are considerably lower than laboratory-based testing methods.
Sniffer Dogs
Scientists don’t know what the dogs sniff when they detect the virus. A French study published in the Preprint Server For Biology on June 05 concluded that the sweat odor of COVID-positive people was likely different to that of those who didn’t have the virus, and the dogs could smell that difference.
In 2018, Medical Detection Dogs published a study about how springer spaniels could sniff out the scent of malaria in samples of socks that infected children had worn. The team hoped that one day they could use this skill at ports of entry to stop the disease spread. Now, they’re harboring similar ambitions when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic.
