Daily Times

Chile Police have trained dogs and deployed in all major airports to detect people that may be infected with the novel COVID-19 by sniffing their sweat.

It follows in the footsteps of similar efforts taking place in France, said Julio Santelices, head of the police school of specialties. Julio further said dogs have 330 million olfactory receptors, and a capacity to detect smells 50 times better than humans. They can also smell 250 people per hour, he added.

According to Fernando Mardones, a Universidad Catolica professor of veterinary epidemiology, tests in Europe and Dubai showed a 95 percent efficiency rate in canine detection of COVID-19 cases.

The professor said the virus has no smell, but rather the infection generates metabolic change which in turn leads to the release of a particular type of sweat “which is what the dog would detect,” he added.

As per reports, the dogs–three golden retrievers and a labrador — are between the ages of four and five. Until now they have been used to sniff out illicit drugs, explosives and lost people, police say.

The training program is a joint effort by Chile’s national police, the Carabineros, and specialists at the Universidad Catolica de Chile.

Medical Detection Dogs, a British charity set up in 2008 to harness dogs’ sharp sense of smell to detect human diseases, also started training canines to detect COVID-19 in late March. According to the World Organisation for Animal Health, the possibility of contagion from a dog is remote.

The canine trainees began their education one month ago and will use sweat samples taken from COVID-19 patients being treated at the Universidad Catolica’s clinic.

Chile on Wednesday reported 1,856 new cases of COVID-19 the lowest figure in two months bringing the total of cases since March 3 to 319,493.