Sibiu: Dogs trained to detect SARS-CoV-2 virus

At the Sibiu Cynological Center, which has one of the best and oldest training schools for police dogs in Europe, service dogs are also being trained, more recently, to detect people infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

For starters, six dogs have been selected to receive special training so that they can be used at airports or at land borders.

Chief Police Commissioner Balea Leonard, director of the Sibiu Cynological Center: It is a pilot research project, unique in Romania. It began last summer, when we were inspired by the results obtained in the United Arab Emirates and later in France, Finland and Germany. We started this project with a number of six canine specimens - five German Shepherds and one Belgian Malinois shepherd.

Reporter: What exactly do they detect?

Balea Leonard: The dogs detect those substances that the human body infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus releases, more specificaly a sweat odor, those sulfites that human perspiration contains. So far we can say, without exaggeration, that the results are gratifying and we hope that in the spring of this year we will enter the next phase, the phase of action at the Sibiu Airport.

Translated by: Radu Matei