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Noack writes: "Finland is set to launch a coronavirus-sniffing-dog pilot program at Helsinki Airport on Wednesday, hoping that dogs could come to play a key role in screening for COVID-19."

Sniffer dogs named K'ssi, left and Miina with trainer Susanna Paavilainen at the Helsinki airport in Vantaa, Finland on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2020. Four corona sniffer dogs are trained to detect the COVID-19 virus among arriving passengers at the airport. (photo: Antti Aimo-Koivisto/Lehtikuva/AP)
Sniffer dogs named K'ssi, left and Miina with trainer Susanna Paavilainen at the Helsinki airport in Vantaa, Finland on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2020. Four corona sniffer dogs are trained to detect the COVID-19 virus among arriving passengers at the airport. (photo: Antti Aimo-Koivisto/Lehtikuva/AP)


Finland to Deploy Coronavirus-Sniffing Dogs at Helsinki Airport

By Rick Noack, The Seattle Times

23 September 20

 

inland is set to launch a coronavirus-sniffing-dog pilot program at Helsinki Airport on Wednesday, hoping that dogs could come to play a key role in screening for COVID-19.

The voluntary canine tests will deliver results within 10 seconds, and require less than a minute of travelers’ time, said Anna Hielm-Björkman, a researcher at the University of Helsinki who is using the trial to gather data.

Researchers in other countries, including the United States and the United Arab Emirates, are studying canine coronavirus tests. But the Finnish trial is among the largest in scale and furthest along.

In Dubai, health officials this summer began using dogs to analyze sweat samples from randomly selected air travelers, with more than 90% accuracy, according to initial results.

Changes in health can affect the way people smell, researchers say. Dogs long have been valued for their ability to sniff for drugs and bombs, and have proved able to detect cancers, infections and other health problems.

Researchers at the University of Helsinki this year found indications that dogs can detect the virus. Scientists say only large-scale trials, such as the one to begin Wednesday, can demonstrate how effective the method will be in practice.

As in Dubai, the dogs to be deployed in Helsinki will sniff sweat samples and will not come into contact with travelers. People who agree to the test will swab their necks to produce a sample, to submit through an opening in a wall, said Hielm-Björkman.

Regardless of whether they test positive, they will be urged to take a standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR) COVID-19 test so researchers can monitor the dogs’ accuracy. All tests are free for travelers arriving at the airport.

Hielm-Björkman said the dogs, according to preliminary research, may be better at detecting coronavirus infections, which can cause the illness COVID-19, than PCR and antibody tests. They “can also find [people] that are not yet PCR positive, but will become PCR positive within a week,” she said.

Virpi Perälä, a representative for Evidensia Elainlaakaripalvelut, a network of veterinary clinics that funded the first stage of the trial, during which the initial cohort of dogs were trained, said more funding would be needed to grow the project, depending on initial results.

Out of the 16 dogs trained, four are ready to work. Six others are still in training, with another six found to be unsuitable for a noisy airport environment.

Experts have warned that canine tests, however effective, can be difficult to scale. Training is time-consuming and expensive. Even so, researchers are optimistic that it will come to play a roll, even if it cannot alleviate the demands on the world’s strained testing systems.

One of the aims of the upcoming trial, said Hielm-Björkman, is to gather observations on how long the dogs can work in shifts.

“You see very easily on a dog when it starts to get tired,” she said.

The researchers say it is unlikely that the dogs will be infected with the coronavirus during the tests or that their trainers could be exposed.

Although many dogs have tested positive for the virus in recent months, “there is no evidence that these animals can transmit the disease to humans,” according to the World Health Organization.

Hielm-Björkman said dogs could be deployed to nursing homes, schools and other places, where they may eventually come into direct contact with infected individuals.

“You could open up society in another way if you had those dogs,” she said.

Their use in such setting could pose concerns, including implications for privacy and for those uncomfortable with or allergic to dogs.

For now, the airport trial aims to give health officials one more tool as the country prepares to cope with a potential uptick in cases, though overall numbers remain low compared with surges in several other European countries.

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