Finland deploys coronavirus-sniffing dogs at main airport

[Mary Wilson]

By JARI TANNER
an hour ago

HELSINKI (AP) — Finland has deployed coronavirus-sniffing dogs at the Nordic country’s main international airport in a four-month trial of an alternative testing method that could become a cost-friendly and quick way to identify infected travelers.

Four dogs of different breeds trained by Finland’s Smell Detection Association started working Wednesday at the Helsinki Airport as part of the government-financed trial.

“It’s a very promising method. Dogs are very good at sniffing,” Anna Hielm-Bjorkman, a University of Helsinki professor of equine and small animal medicine, said.

https://apnews.com/c93538b825d86908a480b2af6d36843b

 

[JJackson]

Dogs seem an odd choice as they are known to get infected by SARS-CoV-2.

 

[Sally Furniss]

The dogs are given a sample of sweat to sniff. The dogs never come into contact with the covid suspect

 

[JJackson]

lol - It will be interesting to see what type of reaction they get from travelers when they start looking for sweat and I hope the dogs senses can penetrate the cloud of Channel trying to mask the sweat.

 

[Emily]

Are the dogs effective enough to negate the need for a mask mandate?

 

[Gert van der Hoek]

'Close to 100% accuracy': Helsinki airport uses sniffer dogs to detect Covid


Researchers running Helsinki pilot scheme say dogs can identify virus in seconds

 

[Mary Wilson]

The science of sniffs: disease smelling dogs

19 June 2020
Posted by: Mia Rozenbaum

Dogs have been trained to detect a dozen human diseases and most recently, COVID-19.
Dogs’ sense of smell is so subtle that they can notice the slightest change in human scent caused by disease. The tiniest shifts in hormones or volatile organic compounds released by diseased cells can be picked out by dogs.

Dogs can help disease diagnosis
Besides cancer and malaria, dogs can also detect Parkinson's disease.

Detecting warning signs of disease
Dogs can for example detect if a patient is about to go into epileptic seizure or have a narcoleptic moment.

... dogs are also helping diabetics know when their blood sugar level is dropping or spiking.

... Dog scan also help predict migraines.

The Finnish scientists are now preparing a randomised, double-blind study in which the dogs will sniff a larger number of patient samples.
In the meantime, institutes in France, USA, Germany and Great Britain are looking into the matter too.

https://www.understandinganimalrese.../the-science-of-sniffs-disease-smelling-dogs/

 

[Mary Wilson]

Scent dog identification of samples from COVID-19 patients – a pilot study

Published: 23 July 2020

Paula Jendrny, Claudia Schulz, Friederike Twele, Sebastian Meller, Maren von K?ckritz-Blickwede, Albertus Dominicus Marcellinus Erasmus Osterhaus, Janek Ebbers, Veronika Pilchov?, Isabell Pink, Tobias Welte, Michael Peter Manns, Anahita Fathi, Christiane Ernst, Marylyn Martina Addo, Esther Schalke & Holger Andreas Volk

• Received 16 July 2020
• Accepted 21 July 2020
• Published 23 July 2020
• DOI https://doi.org/10.1186/s12879-020-05281-3

These preliminary findings indicate that trained detection dogs can identify respiratory secretion samples from hospitalised and clinically diseased SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals by discriminating between samples from SARS-CoV-2 infected patients and negative controls. This data may form the basis for the reliable screening method of SARS-CoV-2 infected people.

https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-020-05281-3

 

[Emily]

https://www.peta.org/features/dogs-sniff-covid-19/

Since Dogs Can Detect COVID-19, Here Are 19 Reasons to Protect Them
Do you ever catch your dog barking, pacing, and frantically sniffing for seemingly no reason? You may respond by saying, “Relax, Dave, there’s nothing there.” Well, perhaps it’s time we stopped gaslighting Dave, hmm? Because as it turns out, there’s a big chance he’s sensing something that humans simply can’t pick up on! Dogs’ noses are so sensitive that they can detect COVID-19...

 

[Mary Wilson]

Finland's Covid sniffer dog trial 'extremely positive': researchers

OCTOBER 28, 2020

A pilot project using sniffer dogs to provide instant and pain-free coronavirus testing at Helsinki airport has shown promising early results and proven popular with travellers, researchers said on Wednesday.

Three dogs, named Kossi, ET and Miina, have sniffed swabs taken from 2,200 passengers in the month since the testing booth was set up at the airport's arrivals hall, and have found the virus in 0.6 percent of travellers.

Although the research is not due for completion until December, the team say the initial findings appear broadly in line with detection rates of the nasal PCR tests also conducted on arriving travellers.

"We have done 16-17,000 PCR tests at the airport and less than one percent are positive," ...

Compared to the results found by the dogs, "they are about the same, I don't think there is a statistical difference," Aronkyto said.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-10-finland-covid-sniffer-dog-trial.html

 

[Mary Wilson]

Miami Heat to use COVID-19-sniffing dogs to screen fans at basketball games

By TIM REYNOLDS, AP Basketball Writer

The Heat will use coronavirus-sniffing dogs at AmericanAirlines Arena to screen fans who want to attend their games. They've been working on the plan for months, and the highly trained dogs have been in place for some games this season where the team has allowed a handful of guests — mostly friends and family of players and staff.

Starting this week, a limited number of ticket holders will be in the seats as well, provided they get past the dogs first.

"If you think about it, detection dogs are not new," said Matthew Jafarian, the Heat's executive vice president for business strategy. "You've seen them in airports, they've been used in mission critical situations by the police and the military. We've used them at the arena for years to detect explosives."

... The coronavirus-sniffing dog idea has been put into place at airports in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Helsinki, Finland, in recent months.

https://www.wcvb.com/article/heat-to-use-covid-19-sniffing-dogs-to-screen-fans/35300968#