The Indian Army is training dogs to detect coronavirus infection among its personnel by sniffing urine and sweat samples, ANI reported on Tuesday. The Army displayed the dogs’ capabilities in Delhi.

Because of their heightened olfactory senses, dogs are often trained to detect explosives and narcotics.

The Army used two dogs of the indigenous Chippiparai breed and one Cocker Spaniel for the demonstration. “We have conducted trials and we have officially deployed these dogs based on the data from the sample,” Colonel Surender Saini, the trainer, told the news agency. “We can say the sensitivity, which is the ability to detect the disease, is more than 95%.”

The Army is training eight more dogs at the moment.

Saini added that the dogs of the indigenous Chippiparai breed, and Labrador Retrievers were being trained to detect the virus in urine samples and Cocker Spaniels with sweat samples.

The trainer said the dogs were first deployed at the Army’s transit camp in Delhi in November. He added that from December, they were being deployed at the transit camp in Chandigarh from where troops move to high-security areas like Ladakh, PTI reported.

The move to deploy dogs will allow for faster detection of the disease. “The use of such canines in detection of Covid-19 can assist in quick and real time detection of the disease, and help in cutting down scale of RT-PCR and rapid antigen tests, both of which take time,” Saini was quoted as saying by PTI. “And, in Army, time is of the essence. Besides, these dogs can be used at live events to screen people.”

The trainer added: “It is for first time in India that the olfactory capability of canines are being used to detect tissues infected with pathogens releasing volatile metabolic biomarkers.”

India has so far reported 1,08,58,371 coronavirus cases and 1,55,252 deaths, according to data from the Union health ministry.