Now dogs are coming to the frontline to detect COVID-19 in India. A cocker spaniel canine, Casper and two chippiparai dogs, Jaya and Mani have been trained by the Indian Army to detect COVID-19 of patients from their urine and sweat samples. They are the first military dogs of India deployed in the detection of COVID-19. Reportedly, Jaya and Casper have received the entire training. Mani is still learning. At a transit camp in Delhi, Jaya and Casper examined 806 transit samples. Out of these samples, 18 were found to be COVID-19 positive.
India Gets Its First Military Dogs For COVID-19 Detection
Three dogs Casper, Jaya and Mani are the first military dogs of India to detect COVID-19 of patients from their urine and sweat samples. The Army is training seven more dogs who will be deployed to screen troops upon the completion of their coaching. Lt Colonel Surinder Saini, instructor at the RVC Center told the Print, “Worldwide medical detection dogs are in vogue. Many countries use dogs for the detection of diseases like cancer, malaria, diabetes etc. The research is ongoing and they can help in real-time detection of any disease, wherever there’s a metabolic biomarker and we can imprint the dog on it, we can get excellent results.”
#WATCH | Delhi: Indian Army dogs have been trained for real-time detection of COVID19. Cocker Spaniel named Casper seen participating in a live demonstration. Jaya and Mani, two dogs of indigenous breed Chippiparai, were also present. pic.twitter.com/18YdHX9Xfw
— ANI (@ANI) February 9, 2021
The canines have received training on particular biomarkers that originate from the samples of the COVID-19 positive patients. Earlier, Milton Keynes based charity Medical Detection Dogs had teamed up with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Durham University to work on a project that would train sniffer dogs to detect coronavirus.
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Dogs Possess Good Olfactory Senses
Lt Colonel Saini said, “Olfactory senses of dogs are good in general. While the ability of cocker spaniels and labradors are already tried and tested, we wanted to test the indigenous chippiparai and are extremely happy with the results.” He added, “The success rate is extremely good, at 95 percent, for both dogs.” The Army is training chippiparais to sniff urine samples, while cocker spaniels are receiving training on sweat samples.
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These doctor dogs will not only detect the virus but will also help in reducing the dependency on the existing medical testing sources. Meanwhile, Dubai had become the first nation to use K9 dogs to detect COVID-19 at the airport: