Training dogs in Milton Keynes to sniff out coronavirus before symptoms appear

The government has pledged £500,000 for clinical trials to discover if dogs can be trained to detect Covid-19 in humans.

The Milton Keynes charity Medical Detection Dogs has previously trained dogs to sniff out diseases like cancer, malaria and Parkinson's disease.

The organisation is joining forces with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Durham University to determine if the dogs like Labradors and cocker spaniels can detect coronavirus in humans from odour samples.

It is hoped the trials for specially-trained ‘covid dogs’ will show that may be able to detect coronavirus in humans, even before symptoms appear.

This will establish whether they could be used as a potential new non-invasive, early warning measure to detect coronavirus in the future.

Dogs can be trained to detect the odour of disease at the equivalent dilution of one teaspoon of sugar in two Olympic-sized swimming pools of water. Credit: Medical Detection Dogs

The CEO of Medical Detection Dogs, Dr Claire Guest said the charity was delighted to demonstrate that dogs can play a role in the fight against COVID-19

Dr Guest said: "They have the potential to help by quickly screening people, which could be vital in the future."

The dogs will only be deployed if backed by strong scientific evidence. Credit: Medical Detection Dogs

The initial phase of the trial will see NHS staff in London hospitals collect odour samples from people who are infected with coronavirus and those who are uninfected.

The six bio detection dogs will then be trained to identify the virus from the samples.

More than ten years of research gathered by Medical Detection Dogs has shown that the dogs, which could each screen up to 250 people per hour, can be trained to detect the odour of disease at the equivalent dilution of one teaspoon of sugar in two Olympic-sized swimming pools of water.

Professor James Logan, head of the department of disease control at the LSHTM, said he was "hopeful" of success.

"Our previous work has shown that malaria has a distinctive odour, and withMedical Detection Dogs, we successfully trained dogs to accurately detectmalaria," he said.

"This, combined with the knowledge that respiratory disease can change body odour, makes us hopeful that the dogs can also detect Covid-19.

"If successful, this approach could revolutionise how we detect the virus,with the potential to screen high numbers of people."

Malaria has a distinctive odour which trained dogs can detect and it hope the same will be true for coronavirus. Credit: Medical Detection Dogs

Medical Detection Dogs and the universities put forward a proposal for the clinical trial to the government.

It was accepted following strong evidence that the dogs can detect other diseases in humans with a high level of accuracy.

The dogs will only be deployed if backed by strong scientific evidence and the government said it was part of its approach to explore all possible options to tackle coronavirus.

If the trial is successful, dogs could each screen up to 250 people per hour. Credit: Medical Detection Dogs