COVID sniffer dog trials set to begin

Trials are set to begin to train dogs to detect coronavirus in humans – even if they aren’t showing symptoms.

As reported in Vet Times last month, a group of six dogs – known as the Super Six – will begin training to be used as a potential new, non-invasive early warning measure to detect coronavirus in the future.

Collaboration

Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine will carry out the first phase of a trial in collaboration with the charity Medical Detection Dogs and Durham University, backed by £500,000 of Government funding.

The trial brings together leading disease control experts from the universities with Medical Detection Dogs, which has already successfully trained dogs to detect the odour of many different diseases in humans, such as cancer, malaria and Parkinson’s disease.

Save lives

Medical Detection Dogs co-founder and chief executive Claire Guest said: “We have already demonstrated our expertise in canine disease detection by successfully training dogs to detect diseases like cancer, Parkinson’s and malaria, and we apply that same science to train life-saving medical alert assistance dogs to detect odour changes in individuals caused by their health condition.

“We are sure our dogs will be able to find the odour of COVID-19 and we will then move into a second phase to test them in live situations, following which we hope to work with other agencies to train more dogs for deployment.

“We are incredibly proud that a dog’s nose could once again save many lives.”