At BioScent in Myakka, Florida, a dog is being trained to identify the scent associated with the new coronavirus in a metal can. (Photo courtesy of BioScent)
In Myakka, Florida, BioScent founder Heather Junqueira takes Noel, a four-year-old Beagle, into a room filled with stainless steel cans, some of which contain samples of the New Coronavirus.
Noel immediately went into action. She was going to try out a sniffing ability she knew would win her a reputation plus a treat. It only took Noel a few seconds to identify which jars contained sweaty gauze pads or masks worn by people infected with the new coronavirus.
BioScent, which trains medical detection dogs, had focused on using sniffer dogs to detect certain cancers. However, last April, after the New coronavirus outbreak hit, Rongkaira shifted focus. “I recognize the importance of this research,” she told Voice of America. “And we may be able to save a lot of lives.”
BioScent founder Kyla Wing rewards Noel the Beagle, who successfully identified a sample of the new coronavirus, with a snack. (Photo courtesy of BioScent)
Kyla Wing found it easier to get her dog to detect the new coronavirus than to detect cancer. “The virus must have a stronger odor, which is actually the body’s response to the virus,” she says. That odor is something that humans can’t smell.
Dogs have up to 300 million olfactory receptors, compared to about 6 million in humans. Hounds are even more famous for their amazing noses, and Noel the Beagle is one of them.
Rongkaira said the results of her study were “incredibly successful. The dogs identified the new coronavirus samples about 95 percent of the Time.
Tommy Dickey, professor emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara, explained that such results match the high success rates of other studies done around the world to date. He co-authored an article with Rongkaira specifically on the use of medical sniffer dogs to detect new coronaviruses. The article was published in February in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.
“The most striking result is that studies have shown that dogs can identify people who are positive for neo-coronavirus,” and that “they can do this non-invasively and more quickly, with similar or perhaps even better accuracy than our routine tests,” noted Deitch. “.
Institutions worldwide involved in training sniffer dogs to test for the new coronavirus include the National Veterinary School in Alveur, France. (Photo courtesy of Dominique Grandjean, professor of veterinary Medicine)
For example, trials conducted by French and Lebanese researchers concluded that dogs are able to determine neo-coronavirus in human sweat samples with a high degree of accuracy. Similarly, in Colombia, sniffer dogs can detect the virus in respiratory secretions.
Police dogs are trained to identify neo-coronaviruses from sweat samples at Dubai Airport in the UAE. (Photo courtesy of Emirates News Agency)
Rongkaira said most of the dogs that participated in the study “are now more than 90 percent accurate,” exceeding the New Coronavirus Quick Test.
Pilot projects using dogs to test for the new coronavirus at some airports have also yielded similarly good results.
In the United Arab Emirates, Dubai Airport is using specially trained dogs to sniff out the new coronavirus. Sweat samples taken from arriving passengers are placed in a metal bucket for the dogs to sniff out. If the virus is detected, passengers must undergo a nasal swab test.
At Helsinki Airport in Finland, some arriving passengers voluntarily wiped their skin with a cloth and then placed the cloth into the canister for the dogs to sniff. These dogs indicated a positive test result by barking, scratching or lying down.
Helsinki Airport conducts a pilot project to train dogs to test for the new coronavirus.
In addition to the airport, partners Dicey and Rongkaira say dogs trained to sniff for new coronavirus are useful in train stations, schools and hospitals, and at large public gatherings such as concerts and sporting events.
Rongkaira said she has already been approached by a Florida sports team and casino to explore the possibility of hiring her sniffer dogs in the future.
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