#Special dogs are being trained to sniff out coronavirus

Man’s best friend could potentially lend a paw at sniffing out the coronavirus amid the global reopening efforts, as seen in a viral clip by UK-based Medical Detection Dogs.

Specialized canines could be ready within six weeks to provide “rapid non-invasive” screening for COVID-19 at airports and other hot spots, according to the nonprofit’s website. The clip shows one of Medical Detection Dogs’ “Super Six” pooches in training, Asher, as the pup peruses metal stands in an attempt to detect a coronavirus-positive sample. Upon discovering the “target odor,” the dog alerts the trainer.

The milestone is the result of a collaboration among MDD, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Durham University.

“It builds upon years of research that we’ve already done as a team to demonstrate that people who have a malaria infection have a distinctive body odor,” professor and lead researcher James Logan of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine tells CNN. “We’ve shown that dogs can be trained to detect that with very high accuracy.”

And that’s not all. The furry sickness sensors can reportedly screen as many as 250 people per hour, which would “provide estimates of likely percentage of infected travelers on flights from ‘hot spot’ locations from around the world,” according to Medical Detection Dogs.

“The basic idea is we can screen travelers innocently coming into this country who may be carrying COVID-19, detect those people and isolate them from the rest of the community,” Professor Steve Lindsay, a public health entomologist at the UK’s Durham University, tells CNN.

“This would provide rapid information of risk and likelihood of rapid spread, helping to prevent an uncontrolled second wave of COVID-19 in the autumn,” Medical Detection Dogs claims, possibly before patients exhibit any symptoms. The organization also tells CNN that the dogs would be trained on a “dead virus” and ultimately would have no direct contact with subjects but would instead “sniff the air around the person.”

This isn’t some pet lover’s pipe dream. Researchers claim they are in talks with border control agencies of several countries about implementing their disease-detecting dogs to help put a lid on the pandemic.