The canine’s nose can sniff out several risks to human health, including explosives, many different kinds of cancer, malaria, and other diseases. Now, U.K. scientists are training dogs to detect the scent of COVID-19, hoping that they could help stop its spread.
A collaboration of researchers from Durham University, Medical Detection Dogs, and experts from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is carrying out the project. Medical Detection Dogs, founded in 2008, is a charity that trains dogs to detect the odor of human disease.
In 2018, the same team 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 spread of disease. Now, they are harboring similar ambitions when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic.
LSHTM’s Head of the Department of Disease Control, Prof. James Logan, explained, “Our previous work demonstrated that dogs could detect odors from humans with a malaria infection with extremely high accuracy – above the World Health Organization standards for a diagnostic. We know that other respiratory diseases like COVID-19 change our body odor, so there is a very high chance that dogs will be able to detect it. This new diagnostic tool could revolutionize our response to COVID-19 in the short term, but particularly in the months to come, and could be profoundly impactful.”
Dogs may also be able to detect people infected with COVID-19 through subtle changes in their skin temperature, which may indicate a fever.
The co-founder and CEO of Medical Detection Dogs, Dr. Claire Guest, said, “In principle, we’re sure that dogs could detect COVID-19. We are now looking into how we can safely catch the odor of the virus from patients and present it to the dogs. The aim is that dogs will be able to screen anyone, including those who are asymptomatic, and tell us whether they need to be tested. This would be fast, effective, and non-invasive and make sure the limited NHS testing resources are only used where they are really needed.”
The trained dogs could complement existing screening methods and could potentially sniff out as many as 250 people per hour. In parallel, researchers are working on machine-based scent detection: a Yale-led AI model now predicts how people perceive complex odor mixtures. The Medical Detection Dogs training team will teach the canines how to detect COVID-19 using the same methods previously employed to train dogs how to sniff out cancer, bacterial infections, malaria, and Parkinson’s. These methods include exposing them to samples in a room and teaching them which are carrying the disease or infection, and when the dog sniffs out the correct sample, they win a treat.
Watch a canine from Medical Detection Dogs sniff out malaria in the video below.
