MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – COVID-sniffing dogs have been at a Miami Heat game and at the South Beach Wine and Food Festival and now the trained canines will be sniffing for COVID at Miami International Airport.
According to airport officials, thanks to a resolution sponsored by Miami-Dade County Commissioner Kionne McGhee and approved by the commission, the county aviation department is partnering with Florida International University to host a 30-day pilot program.
The canines will be at Checkpoint 3 near Door 8 to check on the health of airport employees.
FIU researchers trained the dogs to sniff out an odor produced by metabolic changes in people infected with the coronavirus.
The dogs have been smelling face masks from people infected with the virus that have been “deactivated with ultraviolet light,” according to Kenneth G. Furton, FIU provost and professor of chemistry and biochemistry.