The number of corona infections is also increasing in Finland. To keep the virus outside the country’s borders, four detection dogs are active at the airport of the capital Helsinki. The animals are trained to recognize the corona virus in travelers.
Ten other dogs are still being trained to do the same work. Preliminary tests by veterinarians at the University of Helsinki indicate that the dogs’ sensitive noses are able to smell the presence of the virus.
In addition, they can do this well before symptoms are noticeable. “A dog only needs ten to a hundred molecules to identify the virus, while testing equipment requires eighteen million virus particles,” the airport said.
The four-legged friends do not come into direct contact with humans. Travelers get a cloth swept over their skin, which the ‘COVID-19 dog’ sniffs at in a separate room.
“We are among the pioneers”, says airport director Ulla Lettijeff. “To our knowledge, no other airport has attempted to use dogs’ sense of smell on such a large scale against COVID-19.”
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