Army drills dog squad to sniff out Covid-19

A soldier with a specially trained Covid-19 sniffer dog after a demonstration at an army veterinary hospital in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The Indian army is training dogs to detect Covid-19 cases among its ranks by sniffing human sweat and urine.

Breeds such as cocker spaniels and labradors are being trained for that purpose at a facility in New Delhi.

"The military deployment is the first time in India that dogs are being used to detect Covid-19," said Colonel Surender Saini, an army dog trainer.

"Based on the data from the samples which we have tested, we can infer the ability to detect the disease is more than 95 per cent among sniffer dogs."

The army is training at least eight dogs to be deployed at a transit camp in northern India from where troops move to high security border areas.