Dogs and Covid-19 update 27th March
Why you should be embracing man's best friend
A dog's sense of smell
It has been known for a long time that hounds have a fantastic sense of smell. Historically they've been used to hunt by tracking smells and there's good reason for that. On average, a dog's sense of smell is about 50 times greater than ours!
Not only have it been shown that they have more receptors (300 million receptors compared to 6 million in us) to pick up any scents in their nose; they have 40 times the amount of area in the brain that's devoted to analysing smells compared to us too!
This is why they've been so fantastic at being able to pick out signs for epilepsy and anaphylactic responses to diabetic highs and lows.
Innovative thinking
There has been real innovative thinking happening between medical detection charities and some of the most highly respected research schools, including the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Ongoing research has suggested that we may be able to train medical detection dogs to pick up those that have covid-19, including this that are currently asymptomatic.
Although this is currently only in the early stages, our once feared furry companions now appear to be one of the pioneers in being able to help save lives.
It's vitally important to still maintain appropriate distance where possible and follow guidelines in cleanliness, however we can see even more why dogs truly are a man's best friend right now!
Read more on the article from the BBC here.
