Three Alsatian researchers have launched Covidog, a project allowing massive and low-cost screening of patients infected with Covid-19 thanks to the sense of smell of specially trained dogs.
- This project, entitled Covidog, could in particular allow rapid and inexpensive detections in airports.
- According to the researchers, thanks to the superpowered sense of smell of dogs, this technique would be even more effective than the PCR tests currently used to detect the coronavirus.
- Nevertheless, the project needs €90,000 of funding to be able to materialize.
Dogs, man’s best friends and perhaps our best allies in facing the health crisis linked to the coronavirus pandemic. As early as March, British researchers expressed their wish to train dogs to detect people with Covid-19. “We know that respiratory diseases like Covid-19 change our body odor, so it’s highly likely that dogs will be able to detect it.”, estimated then Professor James Logan, head of the department of disease control at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. An idea that has come a long way since barely a month later, Sidi Drici, a plumber and heating engineer, was approached by 14 countries to buy him his training technique with which he trained his 7-year-old dog to sniff coronavirus in infected patients.
A funding problem
Three Alsatian researchers, in association with two local startups specializing in the capture and storage of odors, wish to exploit the canine vein by launching Covidog, a Covid-19 sniffer dog project. These dogs offer the prospect of massive, rapid and inexpensive screening. “One could imagine that the passengers of an airplane, for example, blow into a piece of polymer. Dogs could instantly detect the coronavirus”, advances Yves Rémond, professor at the School of Polymers and Materials Chemistry in Strasbourg and one of the three researchers of the project, at France Blue Alsace. A study has been launched at the national veterinary school of Maison-Alfort (Val-de-Marne) to train dogs to detect the smell of Covid-19 on humans.
However, the project is currently slipping in terms of funding. There is still around €90,000 to be found to launch it. “For four months, we have been constantly waiting for funding, while we are ready to start almost instantly.”, says Yves Rémond. A project that the latter considers to be of public utility since it would allow “to obtain the olfactory signature of each virus and allow mass protection.”
The dog, a more effective screening method than the PCR test
The dog has a very powerful and effective nose for sniffing out human diseases. “They manage to recognize the type of virus with very efficient sensitivities which are even higher than those offered by the PCR test which is currently used for the detection of the virus.”, describes Christophe Ritzenthaler, virologist and research director at the CNRS, at franceinfo.
.
