From the classroom to the state capital, one of Florida International University's trained COVID-19 sniffing dogs and its senior handler will be spending the next month at the state Emergency Operations Center participating in a feasibility study.
International Forensic Research Institute Director Dr. DeEtta Mills says, "The idea of the dogs are not sniffing out people, they're sniffing out basically any kind of contamination that may be on surfaces, or chairs, or something like that." Coronavirus droplets can land of tough to clean object like upholstery and computer keyboards.
She compares them to bomb sniffing dogs sweeping rooms to make sure they've been sanitized properly. "They're going to sweep a room. If they don't alert, then that room is probably sanitized well. If they alert, then they need to come back in and re-sanitize the room."
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Dr. Mills says two of the four dogs had previously been trained to detect a fungal disease that killed avocado trees. They just needed to shift them to detecting a different scent. COVID causes a metabolic change in a person. A canine is able to detect the new odor that comes off a person with the virus.
"The seasoned dogs, they picked up COVID-19 odor when we first introduced it to them in about three days. The others also picked it up fairly rapidly," she notes.
While one team is heading to Tallahassee, Dr. Mills says least two other COVID-sniffing dogs remain on campus checking classrooms, labs and libraries.
COVID sniffing dogs will also be used at the AmericanAirlines Arena starting on Thursday.
Unlike FIU's dogs, which smell surfaces, these canines will smell Miami Heat fans before they're allowed in to see the game.
(Photo credit: Margi Rentis (FIU))