Sweat-sniffer dogs make Thai debut as coronavirus detectors

Thailand on Friday deployed dogs trained to detect coronavirus infections by sniffing samples of human sweat, as the country deals with a spike in infections, including many without symptoms of the virus.

Three of six trained Labradors made their debut at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University after trials that the project leader said had shown a success rate of about 95%, with about 2,000 samples sniffed this month.

“The canines are very fast at screening,” said co-researcher Thitiwat Sirprasart. “At this pace, we are able to isolate those whom we suspect are infected from those who are virus-free.”

The dogs are not required to smell the humans directly. Sweat samples are collected from humans and stored…