Dogs are known for their great ability to smell. They are used every day to track down lost or missing individuals and for detecting other substances, such as illegal contraband and explosives. But did you know dogs can also detect illnesses, including cancer, malaria, and Parkinson’s disease?

Now, the heightened ability of dogs to smell is being used in the fight against COVID-19.

Finding a new use for medical-detection dogs

A study in Finland has concluded that dogs can recognize the odor of coronavirus and people infected with it. This would allow dogs to detect individuals with it in nursing homes, where the outbreak has been especially deadly, or in airports, where they can be used to stop the virus from spreading.

The dogs used met with great success

The study, performed at the University of Helsinki, used dogs specially trained as medical diagnostic assistants. The dogs were taught to recognize the distinct smell of COVID-19. The dogs used were able to learn how to recognize the odor with great success.

The dogs were able to detect COVID-19 after only a few weeks

After just a few weeks, the dogs could distinguish between the urine samples of healthy individuals and those with COVID-19 simply by its smell. Due to the success of the dogs, the University of Helsinki plans to use the dogs in a double-blind study to further verify the dogs’ abilities to detect COVID-19.

“We have solid experience in training disease-related scent-detection dogs. It was fantastic to see how fast the dogs took to the new smell,” DogRisk group leader Anna Hielm-Björkman said in a news release.

A nose for odor

Dogs have an amazing ability to smell. In comparison to humans, dogs can smell on the order of 10,000 to 100,000 times more accurately. This makes it much easier for dogs to follow a scent or to even determine the makeup of a particular smell and what a particular odor might indicate.

Saving lives

This amazing ability to smell comes about from the 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses. The part of a dog’s brain that analyzes smell is also 40 times greater than a human’s. So, not only can they smell to a much higher degree, but their brains can also analyze the scent and determine what it is composed of.

Humans have learned to turn this advanced ability to smell to their advantage, training dogs to be able to detect, with a good amount of success, various odors. Ultimately, the goal with medical-detection dogs is to detect illness early enough so that it can be treated, and, in the case of COVID-19, before it can spread.

Check out the video below for more on how scientists are seeking to use dogs in the fight against COVID-19.

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Source: Euronews

H/T: Good News Network, DW.com, PBS.org