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With their thin noses, the dogs of the Austrian Armed Forces recognize whether a person is infected with Sars-CoV-2, Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner (ÖVP) told reporters on Monday. Smell a used mouth and nose mask if the user is sick with Covid-19. In early 2021, he will know if he can use coronavirus detection dogs for routine tests at Vienna airport, according to Otto Koppitsch of the Kaisersteinbruch military dog center in Burgenland.
During a demonstration as part of a press conference, a Belgian Shepherd demonstrated several times in a row that he can safely distinguish a protective mask of a Covid patient from the masks of coronavirus-free people. “The search is very fast and it is not a big challenge for the trained dog,” explained Koppitsch. During training, he easily scanned 250 samples in ten minutes, and typically that dog would work for half an hour at a time.
Training material mit viremfreiem
The training works completely with virus-free material and virus transmission is practically impossible even when fresh samples are controlled, according to German physicist and zoologist Wolf Kafka: “I think Austria is taking a leading position internationally with this development.” , said.
The four-legged friends have been trained by military dog handlers since June 2020 using a method developed by Kafka (SOKKS), which is also used in the search for explosives, drugs, paper money and the remains of endangered wild animals. : for this, the material is placed on a carrier material in a small tube. and the dog was taught to lie down or sit to indicate when he smells that smell on his nose. In this case, it came from Covid patients from the University Clinic in Graz and from the Military Hospital in Graz, from newly exposed Covid-19 to intubated patients, according to Kafka.
A dog’s nose detects material with Covid-19
It was a positive ‘aha’ experience when the dog immediately clearly indicated a Covid-19 contaminated mask in the corridor of the military hospital, which had just left the patient’s room, Koppitsch reported: ‘We knew the dog’s nose was actually in is able to identify and display Covid material. ” For everything to work in action, the dog would need more routine and exercise.
It is not known exactly what the dog is sniffing in the sample, Kafka said. They could be components of the virus, such as metabolic products, that corona patients have increased, such as messenger substances of the immune response. “The amounts are too small to be easily tested in measurements,” he explained.
“By the turn of the year we will test and assess whether the dogs can be used or not,” Koppitsch said. They could by no means work across the board, but if they were, they would only be used in special focal points, such as to monitor aircraft passengers arriving from risk areas at Vienna-Schwechat International Airport. (apa)
