Canine soldiers are normally trained to locate bombs, weapons, and identify criminals. But now, two army dogs – a two-year-old Cocker Spaniel, and one-year-old Sighthound belonging to the Chippiparai breed can detect COVID-19 patients from urine or sweat samples. How are the dogs trained? Urine or sweat samples are placed inside carton boxes or barrels. The dogs are trained to sit next to the box to detect specific biomarkers emanating from the urine and sweat samples of COVID-19 patients.
The two army dogs have been undergoing training since September 2020 and have detected 22 cases out of the 3,800 samples to date. Why were the dogs trained? Canines were trained to detect COVID-19 as around 20,000 cases were reported in the armed forces by September 2020, out of which around 16,000 were from the army. Using canines has facilitated rapid identification of COVID-19 positive patients,…
