London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Saturday, Jul 19, 2025

Latin America's police dogs turn noses to COVID

Latin America's police dogs turn noses to COVID

Their highly superior sense of smell has long been used to sniff out drugs, weapons and dead bodies. Now Latin America's crime-fighting police dogs are being trained to detect COVID-19.

In El Salvador, police are using artificial aromas similar to the sweat of a person infected with the coronavirus to train dogs.

"It's not so easy, because the COVID-19 strains seem to be changing a lot," said Wilber Alarcon, a canine handler from the Central American nation's anti-narcotics police.

"But the ones that are known have been synthesized and pseudo-aromas have been extracted to train the dogs," said Alarcon, who was in Mexico for a regional canine training exercise.

Alarcon expects COVID-19 sniffer dogs to soon be patrolling airports, bus terminals and border posts in his country, one of seven to attend the drills in Mexico's eastern state of Veracruz.

"The dog detects and marks the infected person, a strict biosafety protocol is activated, and you are reducing the risk that a person, or others close to the infected person, may catch the virus," he said.

Dogs are believed to have up to 300 million olfactory receptors—far more than humans—that give them their superior sense of smell.

Studies have suggested that they can detect the virus even in asymptomatic patients.

It is not the first time that dogs have been trained with artificial scents—they are also used to teach them to sniff out drugs or explosives.

In crime-plagued Mexico, where 80,000 people officially went missing between 2006 and 2020, the aromas include "putrefied, fresh or drowned corpse."

'Infallible animals'


In Mexico's northwestern state of Sonora, state and private organizations already have six dogs in operation and are training about 30 to detect the coronavirus, Juan Mancillas, head of "Canines Against COVID," told AFP.

They include breeds such as Golden Retrievers, Labradors, German Shepherds and Belgian Shepherds.

Similar programs are being carried out elsewhere in the region in response to a pandemic that has left more than 700,000 people dead across Latin America and the Caribbean.

In Chile, a squad from the Police Canine Training School has been deployed in the capital Santiago and there are plans to extend the initiative to other parts of the country.

In Europe, meanwhile, Czech trainers have reported a 95-percent success rate in COVID-19 detection in samples of human scent by dogs—seen as a fast, effective and pain-free method.

In Britain, the charity Medical Detection Dogs is also hoping to harness the power of canine noses that it says can smell other human illnesses such as cancer, Parkinson's disease and malaria.

In Miami, dogs have been deployed to sniff out COVID-19 infections among fans going to watch basketball.

Their new role in the pandemic is no surprise to handlers of the Veracruz state government's K9 Company of sniffer dogs, worth an estimated $24,000 each.

So powerful is their sense of smell that in 2016 they located a body buried three meters underground—a national record.

Several years later they detected a shipment of marijuana covered with thick layers of motor grease and coffee.

"They're infallible animals. They're never wrong. Humans are wrong," said K9 Company trainer Daniel Valentin Ortega.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
South African Police Minister Suspended Amid Organised Crime Allegations
Nvidia CEO Claims Chinese Military Reluctance to Use US AI Technology
Hong Kong Advances Digital Asset Strategy to Address Economic Challenges
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
EU Delays Retaliatory Tariffs Amid New U.S. Threats on Imports
Trump Defends Attorney General Pam Bondi Amid Epstein Memo Backlash
Renault Shares Drop as CEO Luca de Meo Announces Departure Amid Reports of Move to Kering
Senior Aides for King Charles and Prince Harry Hold Secret Peace Summit
Anti‑Semitism ‘Normalised’ in Middle‑Class Britain, Says Commission Co‑Chair
King Charles Meets David Beckham at Chelsea Flower Show
If the Department is Really About Justice: Ghislaine Maxwell Should Be Freed Now
NYC Candidate Zohran Mamdani’s ‘Antifada’ Remarks Spark National Debate on Political Language and Economic Policy
President Trump Visits Flood-Ravaged Texas, Praises Community Strength and First Responders
From Mystery to Meltdown, Crisis Within the Trump Administration: Epstein Files Ignite A Deepening Rift at the Highest Levels of Government Reveals Chaos, Leaks, and Growing MAGA Backlash
Trump Slams Putin Over War Death Toll, Teases Major Russia Announcement
Reparations argument crushed
Rainmaker CEO Says Cloud Seeding Paused Before Deadly Texas Floods
×