[ad_1]
Guess, a lively Malinois who often works with firefighters, sniffs the five cones that have been placed in front of him, goes back to the third and sits down: he has no doubts, he has “heard” of Sars-CoV-2. Like the others dogs from the French Nosais-Covid-19 project team, Guess “sniffs” COVID-19, seek and find the positives. His job would be to snort explosives, but it took little to add another scent that his nose should be able to identify: the smell of armpit sweat from someone positive for COVID-19. The Nosaïs project was started last spring, in the middle of the first wave, by Professor Dominique Grandjean, professor and researcher at the École Nationale de Veterinaria de Alfort, in the southeastern suburb of Paris. The initiative, Covid Dogs, easily lends itself to irony and skepticism, but it works and has been the subject of a scientific publication: the results indicate a reliability of 95 percent, superior to molecular swabs. “We have ten dogs operating on the national territory,” said Professor Grandjean a couple of days ago, complaining, however, of excessive indifference on the part of the French health authorities. “We have something that works, that costs much cheaper than all the other weapons against the epidemic, but we do not want to try.”
Covid, Conte: «At Christmas we will not repeat Ferragosto, there are no holidays in the snow. Let’s try to reopen the schools “
FIRST ARAB EMIRATES
Abroad, on the other hand, the use of anti-Covid dogs is beginning to spread. The UAE was among the first and most enthusiastic: teams of antivirus moviegoers are now working (on an experimental basis) at three airports in the country. Passengers are asked to moisten their necks with a washcloth and the dogs to “listen” to them. “Sniff” positives and then buffer. The confidence rate is close to 99 percent. And not only that: the negative swab of a passenger who according to the dog was positive, became positive a few days later, confirming that the nose senses the virus even in asymptomatic patients, often unidentified by tests. At Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport, four anti-Covid dogs are already exercising on the ground. Units in training also in Germany (in Hannover), Belgium, Lebanon, Argentina and Chile In Italy we work in the Onlus MDDI (Medical Detection Dogs Italy), where the technical director Aldo La Spina speaks of “even very short” times to reach have a unit of trained dogs: “In Hannover – said Spina – they trained dogs in 5-6 weeks and it is not certain that we will not be able to have the dogs ready within a month”.
What they smell
Researchers from the French Veterinary School point out that dogs do not actually smell the virus itself, but “some substances secreted by the body when infected with Sars-CoV-2, regardless of whether or not they present symptoms of the disease.” . The medical experience of the canine nose has already proven its efficacy with tumors: three years ago, the Curie Institute in Paris had “graduated” the first dogs capable of “feeling” breast cancer, with 100 percent reliability . one hundred. “Dogs are not used to replace PCR tests, on the other hand they are an additional screening tool,” said Aymeric Bernard, who coordinates a second team of anti-Covid dogs in Ajaccio. Inti, Nash and Onda are ready to go into action. “Training is short and cheap” Bernard insists: the dogs, according to him, could be used not only in border areas, such as stations and airports, but also in schools or nursing homes, where tampons could be more easily accepted. nose-pharynx, much more annoying than the pleasant sniffing of a dog.
© REPRODUCTION RESERVED
[ad_2]
