The latest COVID-19 detector dog research and trials commenced at Adelaide Airport last week (17 June) as part of a cross-Governmental, multi-Agency partnership.
In a statement, Australian Border Force (ABF) said the COVID-19 detector dog feasibility trials were a collaboration between the ABF; the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment; NSW Health; SA Health; the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service (SAMFS); and the University of Adelaide’s School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences.
“Following positive results from the Phase One controlled trials at the University of Adelaide, and the ABF National Detector Dog Program Facility in Melbourne, operational research trials were conducted over three weeks at Sydney International Terminal from 15-31 March 2021,” ABF said.
“The results from the Sydney trials provided scientific results which require further research to test the effectiveness of the dogs to detect COVID-infectious people from sweat samples,” it said.
ABF said if the trials in Adelaide proved the success of the detector dogs, SA Health had indicated support for the commencement of operational trials on ‘live’ samples from passengers on repatriation flights.
Border Force said the dogs weren’t being trained to directly sniff COVID-19-infected people but to detect the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in sweat samples volunteered by people and presented to a detector dog in isolation away from the travelling public.
“The provision of a sweat sample by the passenger would be voluntary during the trial,” ABF said.
Acting ABF Commander John Taylor said the ability of the dogs to indicate whether a person was infectious, even if they hadn’t yet tested positive to COVID-19, would assist in earlier intervention when managing the potential spread of the virus.
