A former First Lady of Iceland has claimed that a clone she had made of her pet dog has developed a supernatural sense of smell and she now wants him trained up to sniff out COVID-19 to “benefit Iceland”.
Former Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, 77, and ex-First Lady Dorrit Moussaief, 70, had their beloved dog Samur cloned in October 2019 in Texas in the US.
Their new pooch Samson underwent training in Aspen in Colorado with dog expert Ted Hoff before arriving home to Iceland with his owners this month after a period of isolation apart, according to reports.
Moussaief told local media that Samson is much more child-friendly than Samur and that he has a supernatural sense of smell that she believes is so good it can even detect COVID-19.
According to reports, the University Hospital of Pennsylvania has used sniffer dogs in the fight against the epidemic and seven have been trained to detect infected people carrying the virus.
Moussaief now wants Samson to have the same training.
She said: “I want to train him to sniff out COVID. Samson’s sense of smell is very good. Experts have looked into it. I hope that if this works, it can benefit Iceland.”
Samson was born in October 2019 and in December the former Icelandic first lady brought him home to where she was staying in the US.
Moussaief then travelled home to Iceland via the UK, and she reportedly contracted the virus on the way.
Samson the cloned puppy from Iceland 
Ted Hoff and Samson, the dog from Iceland
She was allowed to return to the US and reunite with her cloned dog in May.
They recently returned to Iceland this time together, where Samson has to be kept in quarantine for two weeks.
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Story By: Lee Bullen, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency: Newsflash
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