Chilean police train dogs to sniff out COVID-19

SANTIAGO, July 15 (AFP): Police in Chile are training dogs to detect people that may be infected with the novel coronavirus by sniffing their sweat.
The dogs - three golden retrievers and a labrador - are between the ages of four and five. Until now they have been used to sniff out illicit drugs, explosives and lost people, police say.
The training program is a joint effort by Chile's national police, the Carabineros, and specialists at the Universidad Catolica de Chile.
It follows in the footsteps of similar efforts taking place in France, said Julio Santelices, head of the police school of specialties.
Dogs have 330 million olfactory receptors, and an ability to detect smells 50 times better than humans. They can also smell 250 people per hour.
"The virus has no smell, but rather the infection generates metabolic changes" which in turn leads to the release of a particular type of sweat "which is what the dog would detect," Fernando Mardones, a Universidad Catolica professor of veterinary epidemiology, told AFP.
According to Santelices, tests in Europe and Dubai shown a 95 percent efficiency rate in canine detection of COVID-19 cases.