Dogs have an extraordinary sense of smell – and can even sniff out corona infections. You have to be able to use that, and a research project in Hanover actually wants to use corona detection dogs at concerts.
Hanover – Cordula is excited and curious, the Bernese mountain bitch sniffs eagerly and wags her tail. Do you have any idea how important your job is? She is a corona sniffer dog.
Cordula must be able to deal with stress and also be motivated with food and toys, explains the explosives dog handler Daniel Jannett on Thursday. This is the former family dog and that is a good thing: because when looking for infections, the amount of samples is significantly larger than when looking for explosives. For the first time in Germany, corona detection dogs are supposed to help make a series of concerts safer in practical use for a research project in Hanover.
The goal is to “steam down potential hazards” – and to clarify whether the use of dogs is an option, says Lower Saxony’s Minister of Science Björn Thümler. “There is worldwide interest in the project,” emphasizes the CDU politician. Holger Volk, head of the clinic for small animals at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, speaks of 26 studies worldwide, all of which have shown that dogs could sniff out corona infections – even in people without symptoms. Although the virus does not give off an odor, it changes the metabolism of infected human cells. The dog could smell that.
The practical test should show how well this works. The four-part concert series starts on Sunday with Fury in the Slaughterhouse on the Gilde-Parkbühne in Hanover – secured by corona detection dogs. The series will be continued with Bosse (September 27th), Alle Farben (October 2nd) and Sido (October 9th) – and is part of the “Back to Culture” project by the University of Veterinary Medicine, Hanover Concerts and ProEvent Hanover, which is run by the Ministry is funded with 1.3 million euros. The study could mean a “ray of hope for artists”, emphasizes Thümler.
Every visitor has to hand in sweat samples at the entrance by stroking the crook of a cotton wool pad – this is where there is the least foreign smell, as people say. At the first concert with 500 visitors, five to six dogs should be used. At the following concerts, the number of visitors gradually increases to up to 1500 – and more and more corona rules are no longer applicable. At the last concert you don’t even have to wear masks anymore.
In any case, only people who have had themselves tested on the same day in a rapid test center in Hanover are allowed to attend: There, two swabs are taken for antigen rapid tests and PCR tests as well as a sweat sample for the dogs. Then tests and results of odor samples are compared.
The following applies: The dogs do not run through the crowd, but get the samples presented separately, as the head of the clinic for small animals explains. Otherwise there is a risk that people will want to “interact positively” with the dogs, that is, want to cuddle. Sometimes the dogs would get bulk samples through a sample machine, from whose holes smells poured out, sometimes they would walk along a series of samples. “It’s a game for them,” says Volk.
As early as the summer of 2020, a team of researchers led by the University of Veterinary Medicine published a study for which eight detection dogs from the Bundeswehr had been trained to detect corona infections. After just eight days of training, the dogs were able to correctly identify 94 percent of 1012 saliva or respiratory secretion samples. A follow-up study showed that sweat and urine are also suitable sample material. It was the first study ever, explains Volk. Corona detection dogs are already being used at the airport in Helsinki and Dubai, for example. The tests should be completed by mid-October, says Thümler.
Can dogs also be used at large events with 50,000 people and more? That is a challenge, says the President of the Veterinary University, Gerhard Greif. However, he does not believe that corona detection dogs are the solution, for example for football games. dpa
