Not a CT scan, but dogs might sniff out virus
As some states move to reopen after weeks of shutdowns, infectious disease experts say the prevention of future coronavirus outbreaks will depend on scaling up testing and identifying asymptomatic carriers.
Now, eight Labrador retrievers — and their powerful noses — have been enlisted to help. The dogs are the first trainees in a University of Pennsylvania research project to determine whether canines can detect an odor associated with the virus that causes COVID-19.
In addition to drugs, explosives and contraband food items, dogs are able to sniff out malaria, cancers and even a bacterium ravaging Florida’s citrus groves. And research has found that viruses have specific odors, said Cynthia M. Otto, director of the Working Dog Center at Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine.
“We don’t know that this will be the odor of the virus, per se, or the response to the virus, or a combination,” said Otto, who is leading the project. “But the dogs don’t care what the odor is . ... What they learn is that there’s something different about this sample than there is about that sample.”
A similar effort is underway at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. In a statement, James Logan, head of the school’s disease control department, called canines a “new diagnostic tool (that) could revolutionize our response to COVID-19.”
Exactly how COVID-19 detection dogs might be put to use in the United States would depend on demands, Otto said.
“The exciting area is the sort of convergence with what dogs are currently doing with TSA and screening for explosives,” Otto said. “If we can do a similar approach for screening humans, then there will be a large interest” in using dogs to help flag people.