Army using dogs to detect Covid-19 to cut time delay

New Delhi: In a first for the country, the Indian Army is using its dogs for quick detection of Covid-19 to cut down time delays associated with regular diagnostic techniques. The canine members of the armed force are known for their pronounced olfactory capability and have earlier helped in explosive and narcotics detection and other challenging tasks. Two dogs have been trained to detect Covid-19 by sniffing samples of sweat and urine, senior Army officials said.

Indian Army has trained its dogs for quick detection of Covid-19 cases by smelling urine and sweat samples.

Three Indian army dogs — Jaya and Mani (both indigenous ‘Chippiparai’ breed from Tamil Nadu) and Casper (‘Cocker Spaniel’) — on Tuesday showed their capability to detect Covid-19 samples. One-year-old Mani is still undergoing training.

These dogs have been trained to sit next to a sample kept in a container if it is positive for the disease and move forward after sniffing if it is negative.

After their training in September, Jaya and Casper were deployed at the Army’s transit camp in Delhi in November. Since December, they are being deployed at the transit camp in Chandigarh from where troops move to large areas, including the Ladakh sector.

A dog can screen around 100 samples in an hour with a rest of 5 minutes after every 15 minutes.

“Besides these two dogs, eight other dogs, including four labradors, are also undergoing training,” said Lt Col Surinder Saini, instructor at the Dog Training Facility of the Remount Veterinary Corps (RVC) Centre in Meerut. It takes 12-16 weeks of intensive training to train these dogs with exposure to positive and negative samples.