Miami airport first in U.S. to trial Covid-19-sniffing dogs

Dogs have long been used by various industries for their superior sense of smell. Photo / Celyn Bowen, Unsplash

Miami International Airport has recruited some furry new friends to help stop the spread of Covid-19.

The airport has become the first in America to test Covid-19-sniffing dogs as part of a month-long pilot program.

The two pups, a Dutch shepherd called One Betta and a Belgian Malinois named Cobra, have been specially trained to detect a particular odour created by volatile organic compounds and released through breath and sweat.

Deployed at employee security checkpoints, the dogs will help identify those highly likely to have Covid-19. These individuals will then be given a rapid Covid-19 test.

The pilot is the result of a partnership between the Miami-Dade Aviation Department, Global Forensic and Justice Center (GFJC) at Florida International University (FIU) and American Airlines.

The trial is set to run at Miami International Airport for 30 days. Photo / 123rf

According to a statement from Miami-Dade County mayor Daniella Levine Cava, the programme illustrated how the pandemic has encouraged impressive innovation.

"I applaud Commissioner McGhee and the County Commission for thinking outside the box with this initiative. We're proud to do everything we can to protect our residents," she said.

During hundreds of training sessions at FUI by the Global Forensic and Justice Centre the detector dogs achieved 96 to 99 per cent accuracy for detecting Covid-19.

FIU's provost and professor of chemistry and biochemistry Dr. Kenneth G. Furton said the ability to apply decades of research to something that could protect airport employees was "humbling".

"These dogs are another valuable tool we can leverage to help us live with this ongoing pandemic," he said.

The approach of using dogs for Covid-19 detection may be new for America but has already been taking place across the globe.

In August 2020, Dubai International Airport became the first airport to trial canines who had a 92 per cent accuracy rate.

One month later, Helsinki Airport brought pups into their arrivals hall as a voluntary measure with similar success rates.

Employing a man's best friend to sniff out important information isn't exclusive to the aviation industry either.

Under the right training, detector dogs can have up to 100,000 times the smelling ability of humans, making them the perfect partner in numerous industries from law enforcement to medicine and the military.