A Finnish organisation that specialises in training animals in scent detection, Wise Nose, is training a total of 16 dogs for the project, 10 of which are eventually expected to be able to work at the airport. Working in shifts of two, four of them – ET, Kossi, Miina and Valo – started on Wednesday.
After collecting their luggage, arriving international passengers are asked to dab their skin with a wipe. In a separate booth, the beaker containing the wipe is then placed next to others containing different control scents – and the dog starts sniffing.
If it indicates it has detected the virus – usually by yelping, pawing or lying down – the passenger is advised to take a free standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, using a nasal swab, to verify the dog’s verdict.
Dogs are also able to identify Covid-19 from a much smaller molecular sample than PCR tests (said Helsinski Airport) needing only 10-100 molecules to detect the presence of the virus compared with the 18m needed by laboratory equipment.
Although Covid-19 is known to infect mink and cats, dogs do not have the receptors necessary for the virus to readily gain a foothold and do not appear to be easily infected (Hielm-Bjorkman).There is no evidence that they can transmit the virus to people or other animals.
Researchers in countries including Australia, France, Germany and Britain are reportedly working on similar projects but Finland is the first country in Europe to put dogs to work sniffing out the coronavirus. A similar trial started at Dubai international airport last month.
