Specially trained dogs that are able to detect those that are infected with COVID-19 could soon be coming to care homes in Germany, after a successful trial in France.
After COVID-19 devastated many nursing homes across Europe, the idea of using sniffer dogs, such as the ones used to search for drugs and explosives at airports and events, has become popular within the scientific community.
Aside from being fantastic pets, dogs are also highly intelligent and can smell up to 100.000 times better than humans, and so researchers in France have trained special sniffer dogs to recognise the unique “spike protein” of the COVID-19 virus.
One dog in particular, Pokaa the Golden Retriever, is now working in the “La Roselière” retirement home in France, right near the border with Germany. Pokaa can sniff out COVID-19 in nearby staff and residents of the home, and alert them to their illness. It is hoped that a similar initiative can soon be used in German care homes.
Researchers from the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hanover have published a study showing that sniffer dogs, when given proper training, can detect COVID-19 in human sweat samples, to around 91 percent accuracy.
This research follows similar studies conducted in the United Kingdom and France, which both found that sniffer dogs could be useful tools in controlling the spread of COVID-19.
By using dogs, nursing homes can prevent their residents from having to use uncomfortable and expensive laboratory COVID-19 tests, instead paying 3.500 euros in training costs for a sniffer dog. Though this sounds like a large sum, it actually reduces the financial burden of COVID-19 on care homes, when compared with the cost of regular diagnostic tests.