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Helsinki officials are testing the use of coronavirus-detecting dogs at airports, although more scientific research needs to be done to prove the efficiency of canine testing.
The state-funded pilot scheme, which is being overseen by the University of Helsinki, is using scent detection dogs trained by Nose Academy, a Finnish organization that specializes in scent detection, who it says are quick in recognizing coronavirus from samples.
”We have 10 dogs that can reliably work in the airport environment,” Susanna Paavilainen, University of Helsinki research coordinator and Nose Academy Chief Executive, said in a statement.
After arriving at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, passengers at the airport are voluntarily asked to step into a booth where they swipe their skin with a test wipe and drop it into a cup, which is then given to the dog, which is behind a wall with its trainer. This also protects the dog’s handler from infections.
If the result is positive, the passenger is directed to the Helsinki University Hospital’s health information station for further instructions.
International peer-reviewed studies have shown that a dog’s ability to find infected individuals is about 94-100%, depending on the dog, according to the university.
According to preliminary tests conducted by a research group at the Veterinary Faculty of the University of Helsinki, dogs are also able to identify COVID-19 from a much smaller sample than the polymerase chain reaction test — the diagnostic test most widely used by health-care professionals — needing only 10-100 molecules to identify the virus, compared with the 18 million molecules required by laboratory tests.
The university also said it has been found that a dog’s nose has identified the coronavirus infection in asymptomatic people.
One of the dogs that will soon work at Helsinki Airport is an 8-year-old greyhound mix called Kössi, who learned to identify the scent in just seven minutes.
“It is often asked if a dog can catch coronavirus. According to studies, dogs lack the receptor to which the coronavirus attaches,” Paavilainen said, adding that there has been no evidence that dogs of coronavirus patients would become ill.
However, while the trial has shown early promise, research into canine testing for coronavirus is ongoing. Researchers worldwide are training dogs to check for a COVID-19 infection, but they are not certain what exactly the dogs are identifying in the samples and how long the smell stays after the infection has passed. Trained dogs have been used to identify people with malaria parasites and diabetes.
Other countries, including the United Arab Emirates, have started canine testing trials for COVID-19 infections. In July, samples of body odor were taken from passengers’ armpits at Dubai International Airport and were sniffed by dogs, with results delivered in less than one minute. “Data and studies showed that detection of presumed COVID-19 cases achieved approximately 92% in overall accuracy,” Dubai’s Ministry of Interior said in a statement.
In April, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine (Penn Vet), started a pilot training program using scent detection dogs to discriminate between samples from COVID-19 positive and COVID-19 negative patients.
“With up to 300 million smell receptors — compared to six million in humans — dogs are uniquely positioned to aid in disease detection,” the researchers said in a statement.
Paavilainen said that in the future four dogs will work during a shift, the duration of which will depend on the dog. 10 canines are being trained for the job.
“Dogs need to rest from time to time. While two dogs are working, the other two are on a break. The service is mainly intended for passengers arriving from outside the country,” Paavilainen said.
