Scientists of the Department of Technology of Production and Processing of Animal Products and Cynology of Sumy National Agrarian University are working on a project that can be a new approach in counteracting the spread of coronavirus disease. The purpose of it is to teach service dogs to detect the presence of coronavirus in humans at a very early stage. Such a diagnostics could significantly help to reduce the spread of the disease.
Yuliia Pavlenko, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Production and Processing of Animal Products and Cynology of SNAU is responsible for the project. The researchers explained that the accuracy with which the dog is able to determine the presence of infection in the sample is more than 90%. Traditional diagnostic methods can give only 70% accuracy.
The project is currently being prepared for a competition announced by the Ministry of Education and Science. There are plans to prepare five animals for coronavirus test and the same quantity for tuberculosis test. Belgian Malinois, German Shepherd dogs, Labrador Retrievers and the American Cocker Spaniel are planned to be used to help in the early diagnostics of the dangerous virus.
