Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are tapping an unlikely source for help in detecting new COVID-19 cases: eight Labrador retrievers, according to The Washington Post.
The Philadelphia-based university is working on a research project to determine whether the dogs can be trained to detect an odor associated with SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19. Researchers are currently training the Labs to simply detect an odor in return for food. In the second phase of training, researchers will expose the dogs to urine and saliva samples from patients who tested positive or negative for COVID-19 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine are launching a similar effort, having previously shown that dogs can identify patients with malaria.
If the dogs are capable of detecting the novel coronavirus, they could eventually be used to help screen people at airports, businesses or hospitals.
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