Four dogs on Maui may soon be training to detect COVID-19 in a person’s sweat as part of a study that’s tapping into emerging science and canines’ keen sense of smell to fight the pandemic.

Maui-based Assistance Dogs of Hawaii is partnering with The Queen’s Medical Center on Oahu in a “Major Canine COVID-19 Detection Study” to teach dogs to sniff out people with the coronavirus and help prevent the spread of infection, a news release from the nonprofit said. They could begin training within the next week or two.

“We are really hopeful this will have a practical application and it can be another screening measure for people arriving in Hawaii, especially those people who are asymptomatic,” Maureen “Mo” Maurer, executive director of Assistance Dogs of Hawaii, said Tuesday afternoon.

The dogs could also be used at hospitals as well, she said, adding that it’s exciting that Maui could play a part.

Maurer, who has a Master of Science in Canine Studies, said dogs are already being used at Helsinki Airport in Finland to sniff out COVID-19 cases in a pilot project, with similar efforts in places like Saudi Arabia and France, other news outlets have reported.

With a much stronger sense of smell than humans, dogs have been trained to detect diseases like diabetes and cancer, according to the American Kennel Club. Cancerous cells produce a specific odor, and dogs can be taught to smell the difference between healthy and cancerous samples of human fluids.

Maurer was the principal investigator in two earlier research studies that proved dogs could detect life-threatening bacterial infections in humans with an accuracy rate close to 99 percent.

The research for the COVID-19 study will be conducted in partnership with Medical Detection Dogs UK and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Maurer said.

“This is an opportunity for us to ‘paws’ the spread of COVID-19,” Dr. Whitney Limm, executive vice president and chief physician executive of The Queen’s Health System, said in a news release.

Queen’s Medical Center is seeking volunteers on Oahu. The news release noted that the virus is not transmissible through sweat, so there is no risk to humans or the dogs.

Volunteers on Oahu need to be age 18 or older, due to have a COVID-19 test and willing and able to wear a face mask for three hours and a T-shirt and socks for 12 hours. For more information or to participate, visit assistancedogshawaii.org or call the Queen’s Medical Center at (808) 691-8761.

Phase 1 of the study is underway and involves collecting sweat samples so dogs can learn to distinguish the scent of COVID-19. Hundreds of positive and negative samples are needed. Maurer said the first phase also involves studying the dogs’ ability to detect the virus.

Cotton gauze will be used for the samples, which will be placed in tubes. The samples will be placed in a row, and when a dog detects COVID-19, he or she will be trained to sit, Maurer said.

She added that it doesn’t matter whether the smell is a virus, bomb or drug; a dog can be taught to find it.

Maurer said it is too early to know whether her dogs will be deployed following the study. Four of her 10 dogs on Maui were selected to participate since they had already been training with scent detection.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.