Training dogs to screen for the novel coronavirus

Dogs are being trained to sniff out the novel coronavirus in an effort to identify asymptomatic carriers quickly and easily.

The University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine is using eight Labrador retrievers to see if there is a specific, detectable odor associated with the SARS-CoV-2 virus (which causes COVID-19) or with secondary bodily reactions to disease, known as volatile organic compounds.

The training involves odor imprinting. Dogs have up to 300 million scent detectors, compared to humans, who have only 6 million. Researchers are starting with urine or saliva from a COVID-19-positive patient, and dogs are being rewarded when they identify the positive samples.

The samples are placed on nylon socks that are treated to protect the dogs and their handlers.

The process takes four to six weeks, and the school expects dogs to be ready by July.

If this works, canines could be used in settings such as airports, train stations, hospitals and more. Dogs are already used to sniff out narcotics, explosives, a bacteria on citrus, cancer, Parkinson’s disease and malaria. According

to Cynthia Otto, who is the director of the Working Dog Center at the school, “What they learn is that there’s something different about this sample than there is than there is about that sample.”

Similar research is being done in London at the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in coordination with Durham University. If they are successful, they plan to deploy six dogs to airports in the United Kingdom.

“Each dog can screen up to 250 people per hour,” says James Logan, the head of the disease control department.

It is still unclear the risk this poses for the dogs. There are two suspected cases of the novel coronavirus in dogs that may have been transmitted by the owners. This number is extremely low in comparison to the number of positive cases worldwide.

A few cats and tigers have contracted COVID-19 from humans. Currently it is not though that animals can spread the disease to humans.

If this dog training is successful, it could revolutionize disease detection for this pandemic and help with slowing down the spread.