COVID-sniffing dogs doing well with human sweat tracking

COVID-sniffing dogs are doing well as scientists test their limits.

COVID-sniffing dogs are still a work in progress right now, just like everything else going on with the COVID-19 strain of the coronavirus.

But according to the Good News Network, there is a glimmer of hope in the world of dog science as so far the testing for COVID-sniffing dogs is going well.

Researchers in France at the National Veterinary School of Alfort, in the Paris suburb of Maisons-Alfort, have successfully trained eight Belgian Malinois to sniff out coronavirus patients from their sweat.

The National Veterinary School was founded in 1795, according to a British medical journal, and achieved international fame during the eighteenth century for its collection of skeletons and natural history specimens.

Four of those eight dogs used had perfect tracking scores, while the average for the team overall was 95 percent successful, which is still very good, though it is admittedly a very small sample size that doesn’t provide much data to go off of just at present.

According to the Good News Network report, these researchers collected sweat samples from 168 patients with mild cases, then arranged them in funnel-topped jars in lines of three, four, six or seven at a time, all lines containing just one positive case.

18 dogs were picked to take part in the study at first; those canines used brought previous experience in search and rescue, bomb-sniffing and cancer-sniffing are their resume credits.

The Belgian Malinois, a slightly larger version of the German Shepherd, are often used as military working dogs or police dogs here in the States. This medium-sized and relatively long-lived breed are part of the Herding Group in AKC dog shows.

As always, be sure to check the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control websites for the latest information in what’s happening with the virus, and your state or province’s Department of Health website as well.