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Dogs to aid in detecting COVID-19 in Chile

Chile’s Police are training their dogs to sniff people’s sweat to identify people who are infected by COVID-19. 

Currently, 3 golden retrievers and a labrador are being trained.

Dogs have more than 300 million olfactory receptors, and can detect smells 50 times better than humans.

With the ability to smell 250 people an hour, it has been decided to deploy dogs with an officer in places such as railway stations or airports.

Chile’s national police, the Carabineros, and specialists at the Universidad Catolica de Chile have come together to kickstart the training program and hope to send the dogs on field by the end of August.

“The virus has no smell, but rather the infection generates metabolic changes” which in turn leads to the release of a particular type of sweat “which is what the dog would detect,” said Fernando Mardones, a Universidad Catolica Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology.

He added that there is evidence that dogs can Mardones can detect diseases such as tuberculosis, parasite infections, and even early stages of cancer.

A British-based charity Medical Detection Dogs made use of the sharp sense of smell of dogs to identify human diseases. This was set up in 2008.

They had also trained canines in late March of this year to detect COVID-19.

He added that evidence already exists that dogs can detect diseases such as tuberculosis, parasite infections, and even early stages of cancer.

Canines can detect subtle changes in skin temperature, potentially making them useful in determining if a person has a fever.

Sweat samples taken from COVID-19 patients will be treated at the Universidad Catolica’s clinic.

The virus has killed over 11,000 people in Chile.

Source: AFP

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