There’s a new test that’s circulating around, and this involves our most loyal friends—dogs. A news report about a Michigan couple says they’ve started training K9 detections dogs to sniff out coronavirus. The couple says that the dogs were trained to detect bed bugs at first before COVID-19 broke out.
Rudy, a detection dog, practices detecting COVID-19 odor – which is emitted through the saliva of a person who is positive with COVID-19 – at Paradise Dog Training in Fenton | Photo by Mike Mulholland
CBS News also reports that a similar study was conducted in Germany. Germany’s armed forces are training eight dogs as of the article’s publishing. These dogs have 5 days worth of training before they could finally identify the coronavirus.
How do they train the dogs?
In Michigan, the Griggs couple will line up 10 to 15 buckets with each with a cotton ball soaked with saliva. A dog is then free to sniff at the buckets soaked with saliva. If there’s a cotton-ball with saliva infected with COVID-19, the dog will sit down to that bucket and wait for a treat.
In Germany, too, our loyal friends were similarly trained in the same way. They drilled using saliva from both the positive and negative tests of COVID-19. They were able to sniff the saliva of more than 1,000 people, identifying the coronavirus with a success rate of 94 percent. The trainers were shocked at how quickly the dogs could be trained.
How does this work?
In the same article published by CBS News, professor Dr. Maren Von Köckritz-Blickwede mentioned that since “metabolic processes in the body of a diseased patient is completely changed, and we think that the dogs are able to detect a specific smell of the metabolic changes that occur in those patients.”
Another professor from the university, Dr. Holger Volk, mentioned that dogs have 1,000 times a better sense of smell than humans, making their potential in the medical field tremendous.
Casey, a detection dog, practices detecting COVID-19 odor – which is emitted through the saliva of a person who is positive with COVID-19 – at Paradise Dog Training in Fenton, on Monday, August 3, 2020.
Casey, a detection dog, practices detecting COVID-19 odor – which is emitted through the saliva of a person who is positive with COVID-19 – at Paradise Dog Training in Fenton | Photo by Mike Mulholland
Practical Uses
This is all nice and dandy, but what are their practical use in public? They can be deployed in public areas like airports, train stations, ports, sporting events, and borders. With trained K9 Units stationed in areas such as the ones mentioned above, we will have the ability to detect another potential wave of infections in its early stage.
However, even with these advances in the detection of the coronavirus, it’s still better to follow the guidelines given by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Stay indoors and go out only when needed. Wash your hands often, and when you go out, wear your face masks. You won’t know how much these little precautions can help save your life and those around you. Stay safe out there, and if you need further info on how to keep your family safe.
K9 Dogs, Man’s Bestfriend
Just like in the world of Bed Bug Pest Control, K9 dogs are also very important in making sure that there are no longer traces of bed bugs. Ever since, a dog’s heightened sense of smell has been very helpful in sniffing out illegal drugs, bombs, anxiety, or other illnesses like diabetes—truly a man’s best friend.