Police in Chile are training dogs to detect people that might be infected with COVID-19 by sniffing their sweat.
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 said.
Photo: AFP
The training program is a joint effort by the national police and specialists at the Universidad Catolica de Chile.
It follows in the footsteps of similar efforts taking place in France and the UK, said Julio Santelices, head of the police school of specialties.
Dogs have 330 million olfactory receptors and an ability to detect smells 50 times better than humans. They can also smell 250 people per hour.
“The virus has no smell, but rather the infection generates metabolic changes,” which in turn leads to the release of a particular type of sweat, “which is what the dog would detect,” said Fernando Mardones, a professor of veterinary epidemology at the university.
Tests in Europe and Dubai shown a 95 percent efficiency rate in canine detection of COVID-19 cases, Santelices said.
The importance of this scientific study is that it would allow dogs to become biodetectors, and detect this type of illness at an early stage,” Santelices said.
Mardones said that there evidence that dogs can detect diseases such as tuberculosis, parasite infections and early stages of cancer.
Canines can detect subtle changes in skin temperature, potentially making them useful in determining if a person has a fever.
The experts hope to have the dogs trained and working in the field by next month. The plan is to deploy them with an officer in pedestrian-heavy areas, such as train stations and airports, and at health control stations.
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