Virus-sniffing dogs could shorten test lines at airports, U.K. study finds Sorry, but your browser needs Javascript to use this site. If you're not sure how to activate it, please refer to this site: https://www.enable-javascript.com/ A sniffer dog trained to detect COVID-19 works at an airport in Santiago, Chile, in December last year. | REUTERS Bloomberg May 24, 2021 COVID-19-sniffing dogs could be used to detect the virus that causes the disease at ports of entry, potentially reducing long waits at testing lines and strengthening efforts to contain transmission, according to a U.K. study. Two dogs could accurately scan 300 plane passengers in about half an hour as part of a rapid screening strategy, scientists from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine wrote in research published Monday. Then only the people selected by the dogs would need to undergo a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test.