" How can sniffer dogs detect COVID-19?"
This test requires very little equipment and means since it involves asking voluntary travelers (about a hundred per day) to apply a special wipe to their skin. Then, we present the wipe in front of the muzzle of the sniffer dog so that he smells it. If the person is not affected by the Coronavirus, the dog does not linger and goes his way; if, on the contrary, the dog stops: the person is positive for COVID-19.
Encouraging results to be confirmed
Three dogs, Kössi, ET and Miina, trained by specialists from the Wise Nose organization, sniffed at least 2,200 passengers using the test cabin placed in the arrivals hall of Helsinki airport -Vantaa, Finland, to detect positive travelers.At the end of September, the first results showed a rate of 0.6% of people infected with the virus detected by dogs.
The researchers are comparing the parameters of the two methods used: detection by sniffer dogs and detection by PCR tests. “We have carried out 16-17,000 PCR tests at the airport and less than 1% are positive,” said Timo Aronkytö, deputy mayor of Vantaa, during the press conference given on Wednesday.
Which seems close to the canine method used (0.6%), an accuracy close to 100%. The researchers consider that the first results are "generally in line with the detection rate of the PCR tests" and intend to extend this experiment until December to establish the veracity of these data which already demonstrate, at this first stage, results similar to the PCR tests. performed on voluntary travelers at this airport.
Given the magnitude of the task and the epidemic, a fourth dog, Valo, a German shepherd, is being trained to strengthen the canine workforce.The researchers would like their government to validate this study, which seems reliable to them, and to finance it to experiment it in places accessible to tourists and in places gathering a large public. This would be a great step forward in detecting people with the virus in record time while limiting the cost of these free, painless tests whose results are immediate, no more waiting 5 days for the result. Passengers tested are even in favor of it.
In France, as in other countries such as Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Chile, tests with sniffer dogs, carried out on a small scale, have not been "widely adopted by the authorities, partly because of a lack of feedback, say some researchers.”