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How European countries could use Covid-sniffing dogs to reduce infections

The Local Germany
The Local Germany - [email protected]
How European countries could use Covid-sniffing dogs to reduce infections
Photo: AFP

Scientific trials in several European countries have found that trained dogs can accurately detect coronavirus in human sweat, opening up a new path for faster and cheaper preliminary Covid screening in all kinds of places.

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With a sense of smell that's 10,000 to 100,000 times better than ours, it's no surprise that numerous trials have shown that dogs are capable of accurately detecting if a person has Covid-19 in 95 percent of cases.

Scientific teams across Europe are now training pooches to see how much they can finetune their sense of smell to Covid-19 (without them coming into direct contact with it), in the hope that sniffer dogs can become a mainstay at schools, stadiums, airports and other public places.

So far, there are reports of succesful trials in France, Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy, Finland, Belgium and the Czech Republic.

This quick and cheap preliminary screening method has the potential to cut costs, save lives and help countries with a limited lab testing capacity. 

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