Specially trained dogs can detect people infected with Covid-19 - by sniffing their armpits, writes William Janes.

A new study that has seen pilot schemes trialled around the world, found dogs can sniff out coronavirus in the sweat of humans.

Because of their famously acute sense of smell, dogs have been used to root out drugs, explosives and even successfully pick up diseases like colon cancer.

But a team of French scientists have now shown man's best friend can also help save lives during the pandemic by spotting the virus.

In fact an early experiment suggests canines can be between 75 per cent and 100 per cent effective at detecting the disease with their noses.

The technique has already been piloted in several countries including the UEA, Lebanon, Finland, Australia and elsewhere.

Travellers may already have seen the specially trained dogs at some airports, but the researchers are still trying to prove without a doubt that dogs can pick up the scent before the method is fully adopted.

The team behind the study hope their findings will mean dogs could be used in parts of the world without the infrastructure for expensive mass testing.

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But the loveable animals could be used anywhere, with hopes that invasive nasal swabs could be replaced by a simple sweat sample taken from under the armpit for a dog to sniff, experts said.

Professor Dominique Grandjean, from the National Veterinary School of Alfort in France, said the dogs could check a large number of people in a short space of time.

He added: "The results are good and I'm happy, really happy.

"It is a success technically and scientifically and it's surprising because we didn't know what we were going to have as results.

"We have been validated by the World Health Organisation and they have given us a bit of money which is good.

"Probably the country which is the most advanced now is the UAE, where they have dogs in three international airports.

"They are deploying some mobile units to go to the villages and to the people that might be more exposed to the virus.

"For us here the idea was, of course, the airports but I can imagine a small city having a couple of dogs and just saying to the population 'you can be tested whenever you want'

"'You just come and put a swab under your armpit and give that to the dog and he will tell you yes or no.'

"The dogs would be able to do that very quickly on a large number of people."

He added that dogs could also be used where people are reluctant to have uncomfortable nasal swab tests.

During the study, which started in March, the researchers recruited six dogs previously trained to sniff out bombs, colon cancer, or were used in search and rescue missions and re-trained to detect Covid-19.

They then collected sweat samples from 177 people - 95 with Covid-19 and 82 without - and then placed the samples inside cones for the dogs to sniff.

In trials, the dogs were often able to pick out the infected sweat when they were part of a line-up of mock and negative samples.

Although the published study was just a "proof of concept" and cannot be taken as absolute proof, Prof Grandjean and his team have now carried out further studies to validate their results and have yet more planned for early 2021.

They have also issued a "practical guide" to other academics to help others in their research and are building up a set of "international training standards" for dogs.

Prof Grandjean added: "We have been working with lots of countries. I think we have 20 countries working for us. It's amazing, really amazing."