She’s woolly and sociable, and researchers also hope Fifi the llama will hold the key to an immune therapy to eventually treat COVID-19.

Llamas have unusually small antibodies called nanobodies and it’s these immune agents the UK authors say may provide a treatment that could be easily delivered as a nasal spray.

Earlier research has shown nanobodies bind tightly to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and neutralise it in cell culture.

In their latest findings in Nature Communications, the researchers found that short chains of the molecules, ‘significantly reduced signs’ of COVID-19 in animal models.