Five dogs learned to detect COVID-19 in Ecuador

Have you ever wondered what COVID-19 smells like? Probably a dog could have the answer to this question. Patricio Galiano, director of the dog training center Working Dogs WDK-9from Tabacundo (Pichincha), trained five dogs so that they can detect this virus through their sense of smell.

Two German Shepherds –Rocky and Kaiser– and three Belgian Shepherds –Raptor, Attila and Falcon– were chosen for training. None are older than 3 years and, from puppies, they were trained to detect explosives and drugs and search for missing persons.

The project showed that dogs can be a good ally for the detection of COVID-19Galiano maintains.

However, when he presented the project to several municipalities in the country, he did not receive the expected support to be able to continue with the program. Sustenance came from a foreign government to whom he decided to donate the dogs.

For security and confidentiality agreements, it is not possible to mention the country in question or the specific activity that the donated dogs currently carry out, Galiano clarifies.

Only four dogs went to that country. Raptor was unable to travel because by then it was thought that he had medical complications in one leg. After doing tests and ruling out surgery, Raptor had to stay in the country, because Patricio says that he did not have time to do his paperwork and take him out.

The project cost approximately $35,000. With the acquisition of the dogs by that country, around $12,000 was recovered. With this, Patricio says, they were able to cover the operating cost of the investigation.

Dogs live in a world of smells

The veterinarian Emilia Polo points out that dogs are on the list of animals with the best sense of smell, along with rats and pigs, but due to their ease of training they are chosen for this type of work.

Besides, They have an olfactory capacity 10,000 times greater than that of humans., specifies the specialist. They have more than 250 million neurons dedicated to the olfactory process. For this reason they are sensitive to odors that humans cannot even perceive.

This is the case of Patricio Galiano’s five dogs that were trained to detect COVID-19. For this training, the dogs do not have direct contact with infected people, but rather what they sniff are used masksin order to choose the one that corresponds to who has been infected with the virus.

Like them, more and more dogs are trained to detect different diseases, such as diabetes, cancer, epilepsy and migraines.

This is evidenced by a study published in 2019 in the journal The Journal of the American Osteopathy Association, of the American Osteopathic Association, which resulted in dogs being 97% accurate in identifying lung cancer.

Likewise, an investigation carried out in 2019 by the University of Bristol, in the United Kingdom, in conjunction with the organization Medical Detection Dogs, concluded that medical detection dogs help diabetics regulate their insulin levels.

The study was conducted with 27 dogs that, after sniffing 4,000 episodes of hypoglycemia, managed to alert 83% of cases. With this it was shown that dogs can prevent diabetic patients from losing consciousness and even dying.

“All these biochemical processes secrete olfactory substances, substances that we could never perceive in our lives, but that they do, thanks to their multiple olfactory qualities,” explains Polo.

Added to this is a German study published in 2021 in the scientific journal BMC Infectious Diseases, in which the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hannover, the Hamburg-Eppendorf university hospital and the German Army participated.

For the investigation, ten dogs with special training of the German Armed Forces were tested, which, out of 5,000 fluid samples, correctly identified the virus in 95% of urine samples, 82% of saliva and 91% of sweat.

Can all dogs sniff out COVID-19?

Although dogs generally have a very acute sense of smell, there are characteristics in their morphology that allow certain dogs to stand out from the rest. The most suitable dogs for this type of work are those with a mesocephalic skullthat is, neither as long as that of a greyhound nor flat as that of a pug, but rather somewhere in between.

German Shepherd, Belgian Shepherd, golden retriever Y beagle They are clear examples of this type of skull, explains Polo.

There is another fundamental factor for canine training in which a veterinary science called ethology is involved, which studies animal behavior and performance. Through observation techniques, Polo explains, veterinary ethologists determine which animal is the most appropriate for different types of work.

Generally, this monitoring is done since the dogs are puppies and Those who lactate first stand out and have leadership over the rest of the members of the litter. On the other hand, training an adult dog, especially for this type of detection work, is a complex process, emphasizes the specialist. For this reason, the dogs destined for this purpose are selected from birth.

Patricio Galiano agrees with this, who points out that in his organization they are dedicated to raising and training dogs that they consider talented to be working dogs.

Working Dogs does not work as a dog breeder, but rather as a training center for dogs that they are acquired as puppies in order to convert them into dogs suitable for performing detection activities by smell.

“From our set of dogs we took those that were already adults and had previous training in substance detection to be able to carry out this research,” he says.

canine smell vs. COVID-19

Currently, the most accepted ways to confirm or rule out COVID-19 disease are medical check-ups, PCR and antigen tests. This is how Paúl Cárdenas, a microbiologist at the San Francisco University, specifies it, while explaining that dogs cannot be standardized as tests diagnosis.

“Despite the sensitivity that dogs have in their sense of smell, this detection would not be completely objective and verifiable results could not be obtained,” he comments.

Patricio Galiano agrees with this, since he affirms that the training he carries out is not intended to replace diagnostic tests, but rather to turn it into a complementary tool.

Both specialists agree that the help of the dogs would be ideal in crowded spaces, such as airports, concerts and massive events.

“The support of the dogs is a complementary utility because if the dog detects a suspect, an antigen test could be done immediately, which will return the result in ten minutes and thus avoid new infections,” highlights Cárdenas.

At present, Raptor continues with his daily routine of playing and training and, according to Patricio, they hope one day to return to a research in other areas and other pathologies.

As for Rocky, Kaiser, Attila and Halcón are part of investigations in their host country. “They are going to continue doing studies with dogs, which are assigned to people who take good care of them, and they will continue to be the tool for research not only on COVID-19, but also on other diseases,” Patricio highlights. (I)