Believe it or not, dogs can sometimes smell disease, including cancer and malaria!

The research is ongoing but the latest disease dogs have been taught to detect is COVID-19.

And dogs that have been trained to detect the coronavirus have now started working at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport as of the end of September to participate in a pilot project.

The study is being run by the University of Helsinki in Finland, where researchers taught dogs to recognize an odor signature present in the urine of infected patients.

Not only were the dogs accurate, but they were nearly as reliable as the standard PCR tests that medical centers are using.

They can also detect the virus before PCR tests can!

Oddly enough, it’s still unclear what substances are present in urine that gives off the odor, but since the SARS-CoV-2 virus attacked the lungs, blood vessels, kidneys, and heart, researchers assumed something would be excreted in the urine. Respiratory diseases can often change our body odor, so it makes sense that a sensitive nose would be able to sniff out something.

More work needs to be done, but part of the trial is installing the pups in the Helsinki airport where the dogs can theoretically screen anyone, even asymptomatic people. The urine samples were used for training, but now that they know the scent they can smell it on people’s bodies.

The testing would be fast and non-invasive.

“We are among the pioneers. As far as we know no other airport has attempted to use canine scent detection on such a large scale against Covid-19. We are pleased with the city of Vantaa’s initiative. This might be an additional step forward on the way to beating Covid-19,” said a statement from Finavia, which runs the airport.

Of course, since more research needs to be done to ensure the dogs are effective, they’re being used alongside standard testing procedures (such as temperature checks) for now. And until we’re certain it works, the tests are voluntary at this point.

Sadly, those who volunteer do not get to hang out with the dogs. Instead, volunteers will submit a test wipe rubbed on their skin and dropped into a cup. The dogs are stationed elsewhere in the airport and sniff the test strip.

If the test result is positive, the volunteers are then advised to take a regular coronavirus test to ensure the result is correct.

The dogs can detect the scent of COVID-19 in 10 seconds, and the entire process from swipe to sniff takes just a minute to complete.

Wise Nose, a Finnish organization that specializes in scent detection, partnered with researchers to train 16 dogs. Four have been installed in the airport while 6 are still in training. The rest were unable to work in a noisy environment.

It just goes to show how many times data must be verified and re-verified before it can be considered evidence that a new procedure will work.

Researchers have been working on this project for months, but since dogs are already being used to sniff out other diseases, it’s been a relatively smooth transition to get the animals to add COVID-19 to their repertoire.

In July, German researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover found that just one week’s worth of training allowed dogs to distinguish infected from non-infected samples with a 94% success rate.

Be sure to scroll down below for a video with more on this fascinating new research.

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Source: The New York Times, USA Today, CNBC, YouTube – SkyNews, Understanding Animal Research, YouTube – CNA