COVID-19 Scent Work K9s

Scent work dogs are the latest and most revolutionary addition to a multi-faceted global response to COVID-19.

A recent collaborative project headed by Professor James Logan at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, in conjunction with Durham University in Durham, England, is in the process of obtaining funding to train scent work dogs to detect COVID-19 in humans,

London said the training would take about six weeks per dog and could provide a swift and accurate COVID-19 screening, with as many tests as 250 an hour per dog. The dogs would be a game changer and could be utilized at ports of entry, public places, train stations and even possibly airports.

Once trained, the dogs could even detect elevated body temperatures to forecast possible COVID-19 fever symptoms.

Nonetheless, London concedes the research is in the infant stages and it is unknown at this time (although widely believed) if COVID-19 has a distinct odor. However, he notes that other respiratory diseases change human body odor so there’s no reason to suggest COVID-19 would be different.