WHILE debate is raging over the appropriateness of pharmacy-based COVID-19 testing in Queensland, other jurisdictions around the globe are turning to man's best friend for assistance.
France's National Veterinary School has taught detector dogs to identify infected people using sweat samples from infected patients, with an initial trial showing most dogs could detect a positive sample from a line of negative ones with 100% accuracy, researchers from the University of Adelaide noted in an article published in The Conversation.
Dogs have already been added to the UAE's airports in an effort to sniff out any asymptomatic carriers of the virus, and the article's authors believe they could be added to Australia's COVID defences.
"Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised about dogs' ability to detect COVID-19, as we already know their noses are amazing," the authors said.
"Dogs can help detect hypoglycaemia in diabetics, warn people who are about to have an epileptic seizure and have been used to sniff out some cancers.
"Their great potential in dealing with the current pandemic is just one of myriad examples of how dogs enrich our lives."
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