The University of Namibia School of Veterinary and Medicine has commenced a project to train and deploy COVID-19 detection dogs.
The project, which was supported by the country’s health ministry, dogs are being trained to detect COVID-19 at the airports, schools, harbours and sporting events.
Others are large gatherings, Conrad Brain, a veterinary surgeon at the school, said in a statement.
“The dogs have learned to identify the molecular level of the samples,” he said.
“We are using Beagles as the preferred breed for now, because they come across as less intimidating to the public.”
“In the future, we want to start training dogs from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Namibia.
“The radius for the smell of all dogs is approximately 1.5 meters. Therefore, all breeds should be able to do this,” Brain said.
He said dog trainers and handlers have so far successfully trained four Beagles.