Specially trained hounds, taught at the Maisons-Alfort veterinary school, have been sniffing their way through the scent of people who have been screened with a Covid-19 PCR test, according to French press reports.
The perspiration from volunteer’s armpits is collected on a compress and left for the dogs to get a whiff, to see whether they can accurately signal if a person is infected with the coronavirus.
ILS EN PARLENT - France Culture consacrait un reportage au projet Nosaïs-Covid19 visant à étudier la capacité de détection de la Covid par des chiens. Le projet est porté par le Pr Dominique Grandjean de l'EnvA.
— Ecole nationale vétérinaire d'Alfort (EnvA) (@Env_Alfort) February 11, 2021
▶️Replay : https://t.co/uJBRwC8WYn pic.twitter.com/IrGlio3yOn
Man’s best friend is sometimes more accurate than the nasopharyngeal swab, according to Dominique Grandjean from France’s National Veterinary School, describing how dogs in previous tests have identified patients who tested negative in the PCR, seen as one of the most reliable tests, but later developed symptoms and gave a positive result.
Eight dogs are leading the effort. They have undergone six to eight weeks of training to teach them to detect coronavirus, Le Parisien newspaper reported.
No dog's dinner
Two of the dogs have been borrowed from the French fire brigade. They usually help look for people buried under the rubble but will now be helping humans to fight the pandemic. The United Arab of Emirates have also provided three of the dogs.
Tests are carried out by the canines putting their nose into cones placed in front of jars containing the compress with the sweat samples.
Maisons-Alfort : lancement d'une expérimentation de dépistage du Covid-19 par des chiens https://t.co/gQe3K6ECkR pic.twitter.com/NMh6aoUNCv
— France Bleu Paris (@francebleuparis) February 18, 2021
If the dog detects the scent of Covid-19 it stops in front of the cone and gets a treat from its master.
It is hoped that the trials will push the use of dogs from merely a research subject into a fully-fledged testing method with proper recognition.
And retraining dogs for Covid-19, does not rule them out for continuing to help firefighters, or sniffing for explosives at airports, said animal expert Grandjean.
Researchers believe the method could complement existing Covid-19 testing, providing a less intrusive test with the canines stiffing out students as they arrive at university buildings, concert goers at a music venue or travellers at an airport, according to reporter Marine Legrand.
