Dogs smell in technicolor. They have 300 million sensors in their nose whereas human only have 6 million. In the past, dogs have been employed to sniff out drugs and explosives and even some medical conditions such as cancer. Now they have been trained to sniff out COVID-19.
COVID detection dogs have been employed y the Miami Heat to find out if fans have COVID-19 before they are seated for a game. People waiting to enter the stadium must stand on dots six feet apart and a dog walks along the line and if COVID is detected they will sit down. The breakdown process in the body that occurs with infections or cancers leads to the release of odor molecules called volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These VOCs then enter the air where the scent can be picked up by a properly trained dog.
An international airport in Helsinki also employs COVID detection dogs. Passengers are asked to wipe their neck and forehead with a napkin and that napkin is put in a canister. In another room, the canisters are lined up and the dog sniffs each cup in turn, If the scent of COVID is found the dog will tap the ground with it’s paw and get a treat. On concern is the possibility that a dog might itself become infected sniffing so many samples. So far the have been found to rarely get infected. During preliminary tests at the University of Helsinki, dogs were able to detect the coronavirus in a sample with almost 100 percent certainty. THey even believe dogs are more accurate that available COVID test kits. The university found that dogs can also identify a Covid-19 case days before a person began showing symptoms. One of the Helsinki airport dogs, Kössi, has years of experience searching for signs of disease in medical samples, according to YLE in July. The eight-year-old greyhound mix learned to identify samples from Covid-19 patients in just seven minutes, according to the airport’s statement.