Research carried out by Medical Detection Dogs has focused on whether dogs are able to detect different diseases. Pre-pandemic they focused on cancer, neurological diseases and malaria and begun testing various different biomarkers of these diseases in clinical trials.
Medical Detection Dogs have recently partnered with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Durham University to look into whether dogs would be able to detect coronavirus. Professor James Logan at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has spoken about his previous work and how dogs can detect malaria with a very high degree of accuracy. He also said that whilst a specific odour for COVID-19 hasn’t been identified yet, other respiratory diseases have been shown to have a specific odour and so there is a strong chance COVID-19 does.
Dogs have previously been able to detect prostate cancer in urine samples and identify individuals with malaria just by smelling their socks! Diabetics are also aware of the super smelling powers of dogs with many using dogs to detect changes in blood sugar levels.
It is hoped that once the dogs are trained, they would be able to detect people infected with the disease quickly, screening up to 250 people in just an hour meaning that our dreams of travelling again could soon be a reality. And if we get to see a cute dog on our airport journey, even better!
References
https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2020/dogs-could-join-fight-against-covid-19
Challenger Deep 