Scientists who are investigating the ability of specially trained dogs to detect COVID-19 in humans are looking for volunteers from the public residing in the North West region of England to assist with the trial.
The trial is a collaborative effort of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Medical Detection Dogs and Durham University. The Department for Health and Social Care has funded the first phase of the trial.
The research team would require human scent samples for the sniffer dogs, and this is where members of the public come into the picture. Samples will be collected from individuals with mild symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 and are due to undergo a swab test, or have had a swab test done in the past 24 hours.
The volunteers will provide breath and body odour samples by wearing a mask for three hours, and nylon socks and a T-shirt for twelve hours. Around 325 positive and 675 negative samples are needed for the trial. The samples will be further analysed in a laboratory to identify compounds in odour that signify SARS-CoV-2 infection. Six dogs at the Medical Detection Dogs’ training centre will then be trained to detect the virus from the samples.
According to the researchers, a successful trial could mean that dogs can be potentially deployed to airports in the UK for rapid screening of travellers arriving from abroad, with an hourly screening capacity of up to 250 people.
More information on volunteering is available here.
