A new study by German researchers concludes that dogs can be trained to identify people who are infected with the coronavirus.
Dogs with a few days of training are capable of identifying people infected with the coronavirus, according to a study by a German veterinary university.
Eight dogs from Germany’s armed forces were trained for only a week and were able to accurately identify the virus with a 94% success rate, according to a pilot project led by the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover. Researchers challenged the dogs to sniff out Covid-19 in the saliva of more than 1,000 healthy and infected people…
Dogs, which have a sense of smell around 1,000 times more sensitive than humans, could be deployed to detect infections at places such as airports, border crossings and sporting events with the proper training, according to the researchers. The study was conducted jointly with the German armed forces, the Hannover Medical School and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.
Von Koeckritz-Blickwede said that the next step will be to train dogs to differentiate Covid samples from other diseases like influenza.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
So, if we could train enough dogs, would people support COVID-sniffing dogs at schools? Would this be a safe enough way to re-open with reasonable sanity? Or is there never going to be a safe enough solution until the virus is completely eliminated (which it never will be)?
Since most if not all the tests we have now are no more accurate than the dogs, let’s go to the dogs!
“Von Koeckritz-Blickwede said that the next step will be to train dogs to differentiate Covid samples from other diseases like influenza.”
That next step is the real test, especially with varieties of seasonal flu and vaccinations for these.
I’m not too concerned about that. If the dog says you have COVID and it turns out it was “only” a seasonal flu, it’s still worth keeping you away from other people. As long as the dog can tell someone has an infectious disease, what does it matter which one it actually is? Further tests can be done once they’re safely quarantined.
Did any of the dogs survive?
No, but they can detect Covid19!
Maybe we could use people at airports to detect it too.
Vulture 1: We thank you, Lord, for these gifts we are about to receive.
Vulture 2: Not human Coronavirus leftovers again!
Is it possible that the United States stumbled into a non-tech solution that is logical, reasonable and relatively low cost? I thought the US only looked for solutions that cost a minimum of a billion dollars and greased multiple palms.
BTW a former PE teacher founded an organization that trains search and rescue dogs. Wilma Melville is a woman of great patience and an animal lover. She has spent her retirement training dogs to find people in natural disasters. She is an American hero.https://searchdogfoundation.org/our-founder/
It will be interesting to see if anyone picks up on the idea since I can’t figure out how they could make big bucks off of disease sniffing dogs. I remember seeing articles about dogs detecting cancer the same way. Has anyone seen ads about dog based cancer testing? OF COURSE NOT! Unless it can be monetized what U.S. company is going to pursue it?
A cousin of mine, Morris Frank, founded the first help dog institution in America in Morristown, NJ in the 1920s. He and Buddy, his female Sheperd, walked across a busy New York City street to show off what a seeing eye dog could do.
From that beginning, we have gone to a point where dogs can be our eyes and nose, finding everything from injured humans to sugar levels. There are many things that we do right.
Mine is also adept at sniffing out mean dogs and people and responding appropriately.
I doubt my dog Mitzi could be trained to sniff COVID or illegal drugs. She is 105 pounds of friendship and love. What she hears thunder or a firecracker (this is a bad time of year for her), she panics and hides in the bathroom, the one with no windows.
Am I the only one who finds it ironic that there exists a possibility that a diseasethat seems to always steal the sense of smell can be sniffed out?
Big deal. (Sarcasm alert.) Now if they trained cats, I’d be impressed!
Covid-sniffing lions, even better.
Except that cats, but not dogs, can actually get the coronavirus
I did read about a dog that got the virus but he had a pre-existing condition.
In this case, if the country was going to the dogs we might be better off.
Maybe they could use guinea pigs too.
Oh, I forgot. Trump is already using those (aka his supporters)
Just train an army of Covid-sniffing German Shepherds and let them loose in society.
Maybe that’s why the Pompeians happily cared for the community dogs.
Very interesting. I have also referred that in this article. I ll leave it here in case you are interested to Discover:
*the role of animals in the emergence of #covid19
*which species can get infected
*how can they help humans fight the pandemia
*why are animal-derived diseases getting more frequent.
https://animalsinshape.home.blog/2020/06/06/animals-and-the-covid-19-pandemic/