Or up to 750 people per hour, dog sniffing virus test begins

Report by : Gan Yung Chyan

                 / KUCINTA SETIA

Image : Diseases have a special smell, so it is feasible to use dog sniffing to screen people infected with covid. If successful, the speed of virus detection will be greatly accelerated. (Courtesy of needpix)

According to the British Ministry of Health and Social Care, after the initial plan to train dogs to sniff patients with covid, the trial in the United Kingdom has officially launched. The United States is also conducting research using dogs to detect viruses that cause covid. If successful, the dog can screen 750 people per hour.

At present, the United States, the United Kingdom and countries around the world are increasing virus detection and expanding the scope of detection, which also makes this research very meaningful.

According to a report by Fox News, the British government said in a statement issued on 17 May 2020 that the study "may be used as a potential, new, and non-invasive early warning measure for future detection of coronavirus."

Lord Bethell, the British Minister of Innovation, said in a statement, "Biological testing dogs have been able to detect specific cancers, and we believe this innovation may provide rapid results in our broader testing strategy. "

"Accuracy is crucial, so this test will tell us whether dogs can reliably detect the virus and stop its spread."

The trial was jointly completed by researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the charity "Medical Scout Dog" and the University of Durham. The research will receive government funding of £500,000 (US$607,000).

Co-founder and CEO of "Medical Investigation Dog" Dr. Claire Geist said she was "happy" at the beginning of the trial and optimistic that people with dogs can help screen for the disease.

Dr Geist added in the statement, "We have successfully trained dogs to detect diseases such as cancer, Parkinson's disease, and malaria, proving our expertise in detecting diseases in dogs. We will apply the same science to training lifesaving medical alarm rescue dogs to Detect individual odor changes due to health conditions." 

Geist explained, "We are sure that our dogs will be able to find the smell of covid, and then we will enter the second stage and test it on the spot. Then we hope to cooperate with other institutions to train more dogs and deploy them. "We are very proud that the dog's nose can save many lives again."

According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, in the United Kingdom, nearly 245,000 patients were infected with SARS-CoV-2, causing nearly 34,700 deaths.

If the test is successful, dogs will detect the virus very quickly.

Earlier, Geist said she believed dogs could screen up to 750 people per hour, "really quickly." This will greatly help the world to improve the ability of virus testing and expand the scope of testing.

The Ministry of Health and Social Care added that the dogs in the trial include mixed breeds such as Labrador and Cocker Spaniel. In the first phase of the trial, staff from the National Ministry of Health will collect odour samples from infected and uninfected people from London hospitals. The six dogs in the trial will undergo rigorous training to learn to recognize viruses (odours).

The director of the Department of Disease Control of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the head of research James Logan explained that if successful, dog sniffing can "revolutionize" the way viruses are detected.

Logan said, "Our previous work showed that malaria has a unique smell, and through medical testing of dogs, we successfully trained dogs to accurately detect malaria."

"This successful experience, combined with the knowledge that respiratory disease can change body odour, gives us hope that dogs can also detect covid."

The United States is also conducting dog sniffing virus test.

Earlier this month, American dogs also received training to sniff for viruses.

The University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine is conducting a trial to see if dogs can sniff covid-positive patients, especially those who are asymptomatic. The number of olfactory receptors in dogs is 50 times the number of human olfactory receptors (300 million to 6 million).

Dr. Cynthia Otto of the University of Pennsylvania said in a statement, "The olfactory dog ​​can accurately detect low concentrations of volatile organic compounds, also known as VOCs, which are related to various diseases (such as ovarian cancer, bacterial infections and nasal tumors). These volatile organic compounds are present in People's blood, saliva, urine or breath."  

Dr Otto commented, "The potential impact of these dogs and their ability to detect Wuhan pneumonia may be great. This study will use the dog's extraordinary ability to support the Wuhan pneumonia surveillance system in the United States to reduce the spread of the community."

The researchers pointed out that the initial screening of trained dogs may begin as early as July 2020, which is an important timetable for the reopening of states across the United States.

In the initial plan, eight dogs will be trained for 3 weeks to identify the smell of covid from saliva and urine samples. After the dog learns the smell of the disease in the laboratory, the researchers will continue to observe whether the dog can sniff covid in the actual population.