Is it solid science or more tabloid fodder to imagine that dogs could help detect those who are infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19?

We don’t know anything for certain yet, but a group of scientists in London has embarked (no pun intended) on a project to find out.

Researchers around the world are throwing every idea they have at ways of detecting, curing, and stopping the spread of the deadly new novel coronavirus that has turned the world upside down. But that doesn’t mean you should feel confident about every piece of news you read. This could be a dead end.

Dogs can, however, sniff out some diseases with a high degree of accuracy, so the research isn’t as silly as it sounds.

Their noses are sophisticated beyond some human technology.

Dogs aren’t limited to detecting diseases in humans – recent research shows that dogs were more effective than genetic testing in identifying a bacterial disease of citrus trees called huanglongbing.

In humans, they’ve tested remarkably well in their ability to sniff out some types of cancer, as well as diabetes, Parkinson’s, tuberculosis, and malaria.

Apparently, humans stricken with these diseases give off a faint odor. And dogs appear to sometimes be more accurate than machines in identifying cases.

But is COVID-19 a disease dogs can sniff out?

Professor James Logan, Head of the Department of Disease Control at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine says of the school’s latest research:

“It’s early days for COVID-19 odor detection. We do not know if COVID-19 has a specific odor yet, but we know that other respiratory diseases change our body odor so there is a chance that it does. And if it does dogs will be able to detect it. This new diagnostic tool could revolutionize our response to COVID-19.”

But don’t expect to see dogs roaming around your local hospital any time soon. It’ll take some time to get enough data to see if research dogs can truly identify samples that contain the novel coronavirus (as opposed to other respiratory infections) with near-perfect accuracy.

Logan has also suggested that since dogs can detect slight changes in skin temperature, they may be able to tell if someone has a fever as well. Of course, a fever doesn’t automatically suggest that a person has COVID-19.

Dr. Claire Guest, CEO and Co-Founder of Medical Detection Dogs, is more optimistic than most.

While we don’t have the evidence yet, she said:

“In principle, we’re sure that dogs could detect COVID-19. We are now looking into how we can safely catch the odor of the virus from patients and present it to the dogs.”

If that’s true, dogs could sniff out asymptomatic carriers as well, which is crucial since people who feel healthy can still spread the deadly virus to others.

Even if dogs prove to be reliable identifiers of coronavirus, they need to be rigorously trained to do so.

Not just any dog can become a disease detector.

But researchers hope that if the dogs prove successful and enough can be trained, they can be used as a non-invasive way to identify carriers who need medical attention and reduce the strain on hospital and laboratory resources.

Then again, it will require patients to trust a dog sniff to diagnose or rule out their potential illness – that’s something not everyone will feel comfortable with.

One place these potential detection dogs might be deployed is in airports. But it’s possible that if they turn out to be accurate and easily trained, we could see plenty more in public places.

And while a dog is certainly friendlier than a drone that flies up and takes your temperature or reminds you to distance yourself, there will be plenty of people who don’t agree with or trust this canine surveillance.

But if people continue to spread the virus, we may have no choice but to throw everything we’ve got at it.

Professor Steve Lindsay at Durham University, who is working with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine team suggested that dogs could be the key to getting the pandemic under control:

“If the research is successful, we could use COVID-19 detection dogs at airports at the end of the epidemic to rapidly identify people carrying the virus. This would help prevent the re-emergence of the disease after we have brought the present epidemic under control.”

Dogs can reportedly sniff test 750 people an hour – although that’s quite a burden to put on a pup.

Of course, scientists wouldn’t embark on the work if they weren’t optimistic, but we shouldn’t assume this means we’re on our way to getting things under control. Research and training take time – and we may find out that dogs can’t distinguish SARS-CoV-2 from other similar viruses.

At the moment, test dogs are allegedly being given coronavirus patients’ face masks to sniff to see if they can identify the ones worn by COVID-19 carriers. But this information has come from a London tabloid, The Mirror, rather than a legitimate news source.

Still, it’s likely that this is how the hypothesis would be tested (though it’s curious that researchers would choose to talk to such a publication exclusively).

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Source: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, BBC, Science Magazine, Wired, World Economic Forum