Sniffer dogs have proved to be more accurate than Covid-19 tests devised by scientists, which is why they are being deployed at places where normal testing is difficult such as at airports.
They are being used already in some EU countries namely Belgium and Finland and also in the UAE to test passengers arriving at airports. This aspect of testing is becoming more critical for two reasons.
Firstly to stop the importation of more aggressive variants of the virus which are prevalent in other countries and secondly because air travel will open up as vaccinations are given to more people.
I expect vaccination passports to become a familiar feature of entering venues in the not too distant future. There needs to be a speedy and accurate testing procedure to catch carriers of the disease and sniffer dogs are superb at this.
Sniffer dogs show ‘spectacular’ results in detecting the virus in a person. A spokesperson for the company who trained the dogs said:
“In 99.5% of the cases, our finding was in line with the result of the PCR test [polymerase chain reaction test]. There were players [footballers] who tested negative via PCR but were found to be positive with us. Eight or nine days later they turned out to be positive.”
At the football club KV Oostende the virus has been stopped because of sniffer dog detection of the virus in people visiting the venue. I can see dogs being used at all the major football clubs in the UK in the future provided they are switched on to the great advantages that they can bring in managing the virus.
Report: The Times March 5th 2021
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