COVID-19: Dogs helping B.C. health care workers to detect virus

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For years dogs have been helping health-care workers in B.C. sniff out bacterial or viral infections and cancer.

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But what about the COVID-19 virus?

Vancouver Coastal Health’s canine scent detection team — Canines for Care — has been detecting C. difficile in health-care settings for five years, and now they have trained a trio of pups to take on the latest health challenge.

They have added to their team two Labrador retrievers, Micro and Yoki, and one English springer spaniel, Finn, who have been certified for COVID-19 scent detection and found to be successful in identifying the virus in a laboratory setting, according to VCH.

Allison Muniak, executive director of quality and patient safety, infection prevention and control and risk management at VCH, said they wanted to tackle COVID-19 infection prevention from every possible angle.

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“We are uniquely positioned to do this work with a successful C. difficile detection program led by a multi-disciplinary team of medical professionals, dog handlers and infection prevention practitioners,” she said in a statement released by VCH Thursday.

She said possible applications of COVID-19 canine scent detection includes screening in airports, on cruise ships and at public events.

“Every dog can sniff but not every dog can work,” said Teresa Zurberg, canine scent detection specialist, in the statement from VCH.

“We worked with scent detection teams around the world to find dogs that have the right combination of genetics and also the potential to do this work.”

The health authority says COVID-19 samples and training were done in a way that’s safe for the dogs and their handlers.

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They collected saliva, breath and sweat samples from consenting patients, according to Dr. Marthe Charles, head of division of medical microbiology and infection prevention and control at VCH.

“Access to this array of samples has allowed for robust scent detection training. The scent samples are prepared in a way that removes the risk of transmission of active virus, protecting our team,” said Charles.

B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix called the development of a new virus scent detection program an “enormous accomplishment.”

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