The smell of dogs is their star sense. Much more developed than that of human beings, it allows them to follow trails, locate missing people or detect the presence of different drugs. In addition, they are even capable of identifying different diseases that affect human beings.
Given the current pandemic, could dogs help us diagnose COVID-19? In this article, we will explain where the studies are to find out if dogs detect the corona virus.
The prodigious smell of dogs
The olfactory sensitivity of dogs is much higher than that of humans, as has been shown in different studies that show surprising results on this great canine capacity. This is your most advanced sense. A very striking experiment was that of the distinction of uni or biviteline twins. The first were the only ones that dogs could not distinguish as different people, having the same smell.
Thanks to this amazing ability they can help us in many different tasks such as truffle location, hunting prey tracking, drug detection, bomb pointing or disaster rescue. Although it is perhaps a more unknown activity, dogs trained for it can detect the onset of crisis in certain diseases and even some of them in an advanced state.
Although there are breeds especially gifted for this, such as bloodhounds, the marked development of this sense is a trait that all dogs share. This is because your nose has more than 200 million odor receptor cells. Humans have about five million. Furthermore, the olfactory center of the dog’s brain is highly developed and the nasal cavity is profusely innervated. Much of your brain is dedicated to interpreting smell. It is better than any sensor that humans have created. Therefore, it is not surprising that in this time of pandemic studies have been initiated to determine if dogs can detect the coronavirus.
How do dogs detect diseases?
The smell of dogs is so fine that it allows them to detect diseases in people. Of course, it requires prior training, in addition to current advances in medicine. The olfactory ability of dogs has proven its effectiveness in detecting pathologist such as prostate, bowel, ovarian, colon, lung or breast cancer, diabetes, malaria, Parkinson’s disease or epilepsy.
Dogs can smell the specific volatile organic compounds or VOCs that occur in certain diseases. In other words, each pathology has its own characteristic imprint that the dog is capable of discovering. In addition, it can be done already in the initial stages of the disease, even before medical tests can diagnose them, and with an efficiency close to 100 percent. In the case of glucose, dogs are able to warn up to 20 minutes before the rise or fall of their blood level occurs.
The early detection is critical to improving the prognosis of diseases such as cancer. In the same way, anticipating glucose rises in the case of diabetics or epileptic seizures is a very important benefit and a huge improvement in the quality of life of those affected. In addition, it helps scientists to identify biomarkers with which to later develop tests to facilitate diagnosis.
Basically, dogs are taught to look for the characteristic chemical component of the disease that they want to detect. For this, they are offered samples of feces, urine, blood, saliva or tissues, so that they learn to recognize the odors that they will later have to discover directly in the sick person. If this is the case, they sit or stand in front of the sample to inform that they are perceiving the indicated odor. When they work with people, they can warn by touching them with their paw. Training in this discipline lasts several months and, of course, is done by professionals. In view of all this scientific evidence, it is not surprising that in the current situation scientists have wondered if dogs detect the corona virus.
Can Dogs Detect Corona virus?
After years of experience in detecting diseases, it is not risky to say that dogs detect the corona virus. In fact, at the University of Helsinki they have just completed preliminary tests in which they have verified this ability of dogs. In addition, they detect disease quickly and with more sensitivity than the tests that are currently being used.
Positive tests with the Dog Risk group of dogs
The trained dogs of the Dog Risk group have managed to identify the virus in urine samples. Therefore, at this moment they are in the phase of collecting more samples to train more dogs and determine what exactly they identify and how long that smell remains after the infection has concluded. In addition, they are making it difficult for dogs to work, including urine samples without corona virus, but with other respiratory diseases, to confirm their sensitivity. They hope to move on to direct detection work soon.
Super six dogs: in training
In addition, also in the UK there is a canine team training for the detection of COVID-19. It is made up of six dogs and they are the Super Six. Three are cocker spaniels and are named Norman, Jasper and Asher. There is a Labrador retriever that goes by the name of Star and a cross of this breed with a golden retriever, named Storm. The last component is Digby, a Labrador. They are between 20 months and 5 years old. The objective is that they detect the smell of the virus in less than a second and that they can do so with both patients with symptoms and those asymptomatic. Therefore, rapid and non-invasive diagnoses would be achieved. To do this, they are collecting breath and sweat samples coming from sick people. This project is being carried out by the Medical Detection Dogs organization together with the University of Durham. They hope to finish the training in 6-8 weeks to start working directly with people. The idea is that they do not contact them, but smell the air around them to minimize any risk.
In addition to these teams, dogs are also being trained in the United States. Specifically, at the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School they are working with eight dogs. They are expected to be ready in a matter of
