What if we trained dogs to test people infected with Covid-19? A study launched by a French veterinary school, integrating specially trained dogs, has set itself the task of verifying this possibility. If successful, a hundred dogs could soon be able to detect Covid-19.
Training dogs to detect Covid-19 is the idea of Professor Dominique Grandjean, professor at the National Veterinary School of Alfort (Val-de-Marne) and chef of the veterinary service of the Paris Fire Brigade (BSPP). The interested party, quoted by Euronews on May 2, 2020, hopes to train a hundred dogs by the end of the month.
This essay, named Nosais, is based on a very interesting hypothesis. Dominique Grandjean recalls that certain viruses or bacteria have a very specific smell and this could also be the case with Covid-19. The person concerned explains that the sweat of sick patients has a different smell compared to that of healthy people. And this smell might be noticeable by dogs.
This could be explained by the fact that patients eliminate traces of the virus , i.e. catabolites. However, these are found in stools, urine, saliva and sweat. In addition, you should know that if the study focuses on sweat, the reason is health. Indeed, sweat carries no risk of contamination thanks to the absence of virus shedding.
As part of the Nosais trial, veterinarians and firefighters therefore train dogs to recognize the smell of Covid-19. This is done using cotton balls impregnated with the sweat of patients presented to the animals. The objective is to allow them to differentiate this smell among several samples placed in different traps. If the animal sits in front of the correct trap, it receives a reward.
You should know that the dogs participating in the trial are mostly experts in the detection of explosives or have already proven themselves in first aid. Thus, this is a new challenge for these animals. In any case, the stakes are high since, if successful, these dogs will represent a complementary solution to PCR tests whose efficiency is only 70%.
A few weeks ago, the same type of experimentation started in the United Kingdom. Several dogs are currently being brought in to sniff face masks of patients infected with Covid-19. The goal is also to determine if the disease gives off a unique odor that the animals could identify.
