COVID 19 Dogs To Help in Diagnosis
As the COVID 19 pandemic, ravages the world, a firm is exploring the possibility of using man’s best friend, dogs to assist in the diagnosis of the pandemic.
A pilot training program utilizing scent detection by dogs to discriminate between samples from COVID-19 positive and COVID-19 negative patients is the focus of a new research initiative of a firm ScentLogix and the University of Security ONDO State.
This was disclosed on Monday by the vice president of the firm Africa and Asia, Abayomi Odunowo at a press briefing on the activities of the outfit.
According to him, canine detection, if utilised would increase exponentially our capacity for testing which is very low at the moment.
“,With up to 300 million smell receptors – compared to six million in humans – dogs are uniquely positioned to aid in disease detection.
This pioneering study – that will explore the sensitivity and specificity of scent – sets the stage for dogs to be a positive force in the mission to detect COVID-19, particularly among asymptomatic patients, or hospital or business environments where testing is most challenging.”
Odunowo further stated that “peliminary screening of live humans by trained dogs in Nigeria could begin as early as July. The Dogs being trained to detect the pandemic could screen 750 people an hour
He however called on government across board and private entities to support the initiative saying the enormity of the challenge of the pandemic calls for coming together to fight it.
“We are however requesting the NSDC, Federal and state Ministries of health and private entities to support us by backing this project.
This new Research Innovation: Odunowo said will be the first of its kind in Africa.
The Vive president further stated that the support should provide us with all critical logistics for expanding research and response program to fight the novel coronavirus.
ScentLogixi targets the study with thirty Six dogs to perform this precise detection work.
Over the course of twenty two weeks through a process called odor imprinting, the dogs will be exposed to COVID-19 ScentLogix scent signature.
Engr Abayomi Odunowo also confirmed hat Within the next few weeks, the dogs will receive ScentLogix samples of Covid-19 which would be used as the training aid since Covid-19 has a unique odour which they can detect.
Scent detection dogs can accurately detect low concentrations of volatile organic compounds.
These VOCs are present in human blood, saliva, urine or breath which these dogs will detect.
This study will harness the dog’s extraordinary ability to support the nation’s COVID-19 surveillance systems, with the goal of reducing community spread.”
The team in Nigeria is headed by Prof David Adebimpe with head office in Annapolis USA wIth a group of multi-disciplinary researchers from across Africa.
The work Adebimpe said will allow us to swiftly accelerate our diagnostic, detection and surveillance capabilities to fight COVID-19 and Lassa Fever, to understand how the SARS-CoV-2 virus leaves cells and spreads to other cells.
He said, “there have already been so many fantastic achievements in the dogs’ work to detect human disease.
ScentLogix produces the world’s finest K9 scent-training aids for the detection of explosives, guns, narcotics, mold, and bed-bugs.
