A Kempton Park canine company in Ekurhuleni is in the final stages of training its pooches to sniff out the coronavirus. 

And if all goes according to plan, they’ll be ready to start sniffing before the feared third wave. 

It will take just two months to train the dogs on virus samples before they’re ready to be deployed.

Several studies have found that dogs are capable of being trained to sniff out the odour of the coronavirus and they can be used as reliable screening tools. 

This method is already being used in other parts of the world. 

Barry Bateman reports:

IOL reports researchers in Thailand have successfully trained six sniffer Labrador retrievers as part of a six-month pilot project to identify the coronavirus in just two seconds.

According to Channel NewsAsia (CNA), researchers from Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University, led by Professor Kaywalee Chatdarong, said coronavirus patients emitted a distinct scent through their perspiration which allowed the sniffer dogs to detect the virus.

“The dogs are different from the usual temperature-screening methods in that they can detect those who may have the virus but are asymptomatic, with no fever,” Chatdarong told CNA on Wednesday.

“The dogs will be able to detect these people. Their accuracy rate of detecting patients is 94.8%,” she said.

She added that the team is looking to send the sniffer dogs to spaces with large groups of people such as airports, and that the dogs need not sniff people directly but could screen samples of sweat.

The researchers believe the sniffer dogs would be a more efficient method in these cases than temperature checks.

eNCA