If dogs could talk, they might be able to tell how COVID-19 smells like. Since March, an international research team Dominique Grandjean from France's National Veterinary School of Alfort has been instructing detector dogs to sniff out traces of SARS-CoV-2.
Also, a Berea man claimed that scent-detecting dogs could be coached to detect whether a person has the novel coronavirus.
Numerous evaluations across the globe have backed that dogs can indeed detect the coronavirus as programs are set forth globally. COVID-19 detection involving canines is transpiring at the Dubai Airport wherein dogs are sniffing swabs from passengers, reported Beacon Journal.
The dispute has spun for months regarding whether dogs can sniff COVID-19 or not. It is a proven fact that detector dogs can identify particular illnesses including cancer, malaria, tuberculosis, Parkinson's disease, and diabetes among other infections, reported Times of India.
Dogs have around 300 million receptors to provide them a sense of smell scientists surmise that is between 10 to 100,000 times more sensitive than hums. Humans have a mere 6 million olfactory receptors.
Such excellent noses are beneficial that you could see bomb and drug dogs being utilized by law enforcement, reported Slate.
A study by the National Institutes of Health in 2016 concluded, "Dogs can detect and discriminate virus-infected cell cultures. Apparently, unique odors associated with viral infections allow the dogs to obtain high rates of sensitivity and specificity."
Upon being given a big job, six dogs namely Norman, Digby, Storm, Star, Jasper, and Asher have been undertaking an eight-week training program to instruct them how to sniff to detect COVID-19. A half-second inhalation could prompt them to detect if an individual has contracted COVID-19 with 90 percent accuracy.
To know the number of people that have been infected with COVID-19, one prime tactic is individual testing. Dogs, drones, and sewage testing are creative techniques investigated by scientists to keep the virus in check.
Individuals exhibiting mild COVID-19 symptoms in the Northwest are being coaxed to participate in a trial with the purpose of testing whether dogs can detect the virus through sniffing it out.
Researchers are taking odor samples from people in the region to detect whether dogs can adequately smell the scent of the virus, including in asymptomatic individuals.
Also, dogs in the United Kingdom are being instructed how to sniff out COVID-19 with scientists anticipating that they could become a vital tool in combatting the virus.
Dogs from the Medical Detection Dogs facility in northwest London are being tested for their efficacy of detecting the odor of COVID-19.
Meanwhile, the National Veterinary School of Alfort's detector dogs are coached through sweat samples from individuals who tested positive for the coronavirus. Upon being introduced to a series of sweat samples, with 100% accuracy, the majority of dogs could detect a positive one from a batch of negative ones.
However, the accuracy rate in the aforementioned NIH study was 99.9 percent. Gary Broberg stated that a dog, working six hours, could detect 400 samples for COVID-19 daily. This means that a statewide listing of roughly 900 dogs could test each resident in Ohio in around a month.
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