A UK trial is set to begin to see whether specialist medical sniffer dogs can detect coronavirus in humans. The dogs are already trained by charity Medical Detection Dogs to detect odours of certain cancers, malaria and Parkinson’s disease.
The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, along with the charity and the University of Durham, will lead the first phase of the trial. It has been backed with £500,000 of government funding.
Minister of Innovation Lord Bethell said he hoped the dogs would be able to deliver “Speedy results” as part of the government’s wider testing strategy.
The trial will investigate whether the “COVID dogs”-made up of Labradors and cocker spaniels- can spot the virus in humans from odour samples before symptoms appear.
Breath and body odour samples could come from a variety of sources including used face masks.
The first phase will involve NHS staff collecting odour samples from those infected with coronavirus and those who are not infected in London hospitals. It will determine whether so-called bio-detection dogs, which could each screen up to 250 people per hour, could be used as a new early warning indicator for future detection of Covid-19.
The government will decide, after an initial trial phase of three months, whether the dogs will be useful or not. Dr Claire Guest, the charity’s co-founder and chief executive, said she was “sure our dogs will be able to find the odour of Covid-19”.