COVID 19 detection dogs trial: the UK Government gives £500,000 to support the research
COVID 19 detection dogs can be one of the last boundaries against coronavirus. This study, carried out in the UK, wishes to demonstrate that dogs can find out if a person is infected from coronavirus. The UK Government gives more than £500,000 to support the research.
A study carried out by the Durham Univesity, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, along with the charity Medical Detection Dogs, is using facemasks and clothes worn by coronavirus patients to test if dogs can identify the virus.
COVID 19 detection dogs, their powerful nose against the coronavirus
Dogs powerful smell can detect many things. Many trained dogs demonstrated to be able to detect other diseases on humans, like malaria and cancers. The Durham University study wishes to understand if dogs could detect people with coronavirus. This discovery would revolutionize the way of identification and tracking of the disease.
The dogs training to detect malaria took years, but in the end, it could be demonstrated that people who have a malaria infection had a different body smell than others. The research showed that dogs can be trained to get that with high accuracy. That is to say that, if this is successful and scientists can show the same for coronavirus, this would really revolutionise the scientifical discovery.
The UK Government gives £500,000 to support the research on COVID 19 detection dogs
The first stage of the research wishes to determine if the dogs can detect COVID 19 in humans according to the simple odour samples. The specialist team of researchers has been awarded bu the UK Government with more than £500,000 to carry out the research. The outcome will tell us if these specially-trained COVID 19 detection dogs could be used as a new rapid testing measure for coronavirus.
The COVID 19 detection dogs project in other countries
This collaboration between the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Medical Detection Dogs and Durham University gave inspiration to many other realities. Other countries are carrying out similar research, like France. Last month, in Corsica, a special team is re-training rescue and fire brigade sniffer dogs to detect the virus. The training is basing on teaching them to associate the smell of COVID 19 patients swabs with their favourite toys.
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SOURCES
France 24
Durham University