German testing has gone to the dogs

HANOVER: A German veterinary clinic has trained sniffer dogs to detect Covid19 in human saliva samples with 94% accuracy.

The dogs were conditioned to scent out the ‘‘corona odour’’ that comes from cells in infected people, Esther Schalke, a vet at Germany’s armed forces school for service dogs, said.

Filou, a 3yearold Belgian shepherd, and Joe Cocker, a 1yearold cocker spaniel, were two of the dogs being trained at Hanover’s University of

Veterinary Medicine.

‘‘We did a study where we had dogs sniffing samples from Covidpositive patients and we can say that they have a 94% probability in our study . . . that they can sniff them out,’’ veterinary clinic head Holger Volk said.

In Finland, dogs trained to detect the virus began sniffing passenger samples at HelsinkiVantaa airport last September, in a pilot project. Chile’s Santiago international airport is also using canine detectors. — Reuters