Can dogs smell COVID, and how do they do so? What about detecting other diseases and conditions like cancer and diabetes? We go through the remarkable phenomenon of sniffer dogs as well as other extremely beneficial applications of animal senses on this Today We Discuss episode, including mine-sniffing rats, truffle-sniffing pigs and death-sensing cats.

TLDR: Preliminary results show that dogs are able to smell COVID at detection rates comparable to various commercially available kits, for a fraction of the cost and time (and they’re so much cuter!)

Links:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03149-9

https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-020-05281-3

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/10/151006-giant-rats-landmines-cambodia-science-animals/

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/8/140816-rats-tuberculosis-smell-disease-health-animals-world/

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp078108

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/can-animals-predict-disaster-tall-tales-or-true/131/

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Credit for theme music: Fresh Time by Roa https://soundcloud.com/roa_music1031