The UK government on Saturday launched trials for specially-trained "Covid dogs" that may be able to detect coronavirus in humans, even before symptoms appear, as part of a new research.
The trials will establish whether these dogs could be used as a potential new non-invasive, early warning measure to detect coronavirus in the future.
Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) will carry out the first phase of a trial in collaboration with the charity Medical Detection Dogs and Durham University, backed by 500,000 pounds of government funding, the Department of Health and Social Care said. The aim of the first phase will be to determine whether dogs are able to detect coronavirus in humans from odour samples.
The trial brings together leading disease control experts from the universities with Medical Detection Dogs, who have already successfully trained dogs to detect the odour of many different diseases in humans, such as cancer, malaria and Parkinson's disease.
"Bio-detection dogs already detect specific cancers and we believe this innovation might provide speedy results as part of our wider testing strategy," said Lord Bethell, UK Minister for Innovation.
"Accuracy is essential so this trial will tell us whether 'Covid dogs' can reliably detect the virus and stop it spreading," he said.
