What is a American foulbrood (AFB) detector dog?
Interested in learning more about AFB NZ/American foulbrood detector dogs?well..You have all seen or heard of the dog squad on TVNZ, well if you have not then here’s a quick rundown on what we do, we have trained a dog to respond to the scent of AFB (American Foulbrood) in bee hives or bee gear.
How proficient is an American foulbrood detector dog?
With over 9 years of working with AFB dogs we have a good idea on how the dogs work and how the AFB infection works. have a look as our study of the dogs proficiency over a 3 year period.
What does all that mean ? for afb in nz?
42% of the live hives that the American foulbrood detector dog indicated on had VISUAL SIGNS of AFB meaning they have current active infection and require reporting the authorities and destroyed asap, the only way for afb in NZ to be dealt with is via burning the entire hive and its contents including the live bees.
27% go on to develop visual signs within two to three months and have to be destroyed like the first 47% that the dog indicated on.
10% take a year to 3 to show visual signs and end up with the same fate as the other two sets of hives bringing our total hives that developed visual AFB is 79%…
Thats a total of 79% develop visual infection given that upto “33% can self heal from a visual AFB infection*” the dogs are more than proficient
with all that information we can deduce that the American foulbrood detector dog is right on the money when it comes to accuracy as 79% plus 33% is 112%. Bringing our total statistical makeup of the afb hives to over 100% and we even have margin for error in this equation.
THE AFB nz DOGS, EARLY DAYS
The dogs start out live as rescued dogs from the spca etc. the trainer believes in giving the dogs a second chance at life and we are very happy he shares our vision and values on animal welfare, after initial assessment the dogs go to the training farm for a run around with the exprencend detection dogs and the trainer to see how the new guy gets on with the pack.
As apart of there training we get the dogs tested for allergic reactions to bee stings and start getting the dogs used to the idea of bees as its very unnatural for a dog to put its nose into a hive entrance, and risk a sting so the amount of though training and rewards for their work must match the effort the dog goes through to perform its task as an AFB dog.
If the dog is not suited to the highly stressful and risky job of an AFB dog they are retested for other scents/jobs like Explosives Detection and Narcotic Detection that are more suited to the dogs that can’t handle the late nights and stingy bee’s.
If the dog is not suited to the highly stressful and risky job of an AFB dog they are retested for other scents/jobs like Explosives Detection and Narcotic Detection that are more suited to the dogs that can’t handle the late nights and stingy bee’s.
Beginning AFB dog, scent training
So what now? Once the detector dog passes the above tests it’s time to go through rigorous obedience training and if they pass they go on to the next stage of training called, Dog Detection Training or Scent Detection Training this is where we introduce the scent of Bee Diseases namely AFB (American Foulbrood) after we are comfortable with the dogs ability to accurately find AFB (American Foulbrood) in a controlled involvement,
it’s time to take it to the next level and introduce some variation to the detection dogs training we now use sample hives these bee hives are empty of bees meaning no honey bees are living in these hives and have not been lived in meaning there is no AFB (American Foulbrood) bacteria or spores in the mix to mess up the scent training.
This stage of training is to maximise the scent detection and reinforce the previous detection dog training and introduce the format of bee hives and the nominal scent of bee hive ware such as wood glue paint etc. we have to minimise the cross/wrong detection of scents, this phase goes quite quickly depending on the dogs acceptance of bees and their overall obedece score.
Scent training an Afb dog
Once the trainer is happy with the progress we then transition the dog to sniffing real beehive gear like empty hives, cut comb boxes and honey boxes to increase the variation of scents avail.be to the detector dog,
we first run through an experienced American foulbrood dog first to find out if there are any current infection and get a gauge on how the new Detection dog should react in the real world environment.
Next it’s the new guys turn he is run by the same trainer who ran the experienced Sniffer dog the first run so to see how the new sniffer dog reacts in comparison. This is repeated on different sites to give variety and give the dog a real challenge.
American foulbrood dog sample training
We conduct an AFB test regularly, we keep a sample of the AFB scent the dog is being trained on in this case American foulbrood on hand at all times to ensure the dog is well trained and able to pick up the AFB scent at any time we need him too.
for example we find a clean set( clean of afb) of empty boxes we can use these to test the dog’s ability to maintain its scent detection abilities.
This is how the detection dogs have been trained to detect a certain level of AFB bacteria though extensive scent association training and not just sit on any old bee hive with a spore load that is inconsequential to the health of the hives**
AFB testing
AFB is not binary it’s not you have it or you don’t American foulbrood is a complex equation of bacterial spore load, hive health and nutrition, so to account for this our trainer employed some genius training methods he has developed over the years.
he adopted the tried and true training that a currency detection or money detection dog goes through to fit the needs of a American foulbrood detector dog, these currency detection dogs work at the airports etc and have to sniff out people who are carrying cash money.
These dogs until the afb dog had the hardest detection dog job there was as they cant just indicate on anyone carrying cash at the airport what good would that be? They would sit on everyone.. So the training was developed to let a certain value of cash/amount of scent of money to get passed but any higher and the dog will give a positive indication .
Narcotic detection dogs are an example of binary scent training they indicate if there is any presence of the trained scent making the training time drastically lower, the learning curve much less given they usually work normal hours within normal working conditions opposed to the afb dog who works nights in almost any weather risking bee attacks and stings while doing a multivariable scent detection job.
Narcotic detection dog training can be less complex but it is off set with the multiple scents they usually need to be trained on making the training time and costs even out a lot.
WHEN TO USE AN AFB DOG
The best time to use an afb dog in your operation is when the temperature is at its lowest I.E in winter/fall and when the bees are asleep in the night time or early morning.
The detection dog will be fresh and ready to go and the bees will be asleep and not flying giving the afb dog time to get around and get his nose in each entrance comfortably while minimizing its risk to stings.
We are able to inspect the hiveware and empty hives you have during the day as there is no live bees to worry about the temperature does not matter much— but we cant have heavy rain or too much distractions around while the detection dog is working.
HOW TO USE AN AFB DETECTOR DOG
It’s basically figure out the apiarys and hives you want to inspect and figure out when you would like to have the afb dog come around. We would like you to be there to meet us on the day of the inspection and show us where to go etc although we are fully equipt with a 4×4 truck to get up to the sites on our own easily.
Following the visual inspection we will provide you a report on our findings and some suggestions on how to handle the hives and your specific infection load or issues your experiencing,
We do not just use the afb dog to inspect your hives we are here to help you though your AFB infection and will offer ongoing support and planning for reducing your AFB load and once you have reduced it to an acceptable level we will support you in a management plan to keep your beehives AFB free ongong.
I'Ve been clean for years, is there any benefit to me ?
Great question and the answer is very simple, maybe. The detector dogs can smell preclinical American foulbrood this means that before a human can see the active infection the dog can smell the spore load is approaching the infectious loading zone,
a lot like we talked about earlier with the currencey dogs at airports the detector dogs can smell the notes and they must distinguish between an acceptable level and when the person is carrying too many notes.
It’s similar for American foulbrood dogs but for the afb detector dogs it’s even harder as hives CAN self heal from American foulbrood at a rate of up 33% meaning a hive could cycle in and out of having visual symptoms or even hoover around the infectious limit for years depending on the afb strain and a multitude of other factors. Making it very challenging for the detection dogs, handlers and most of the trainers.
hOW ARE THE detector dogS validated?
The handler uses scent association training every day with the detector dog to reinforce the positive behaviour and build on their relationship and so the trainer can get more in touch with the dogs personality and its individual needs.
As each detector dog is different there is a huge difference in there handling and training but in the end each handler reinforces the scent training daily and in turn building the dog’s ability and accuracy.
wHO WILL I BE WORKING WITH?
We, Zara and Baxter are servicing auckland and northland, the detector dog trainers also team up to do larger jobs so no matter what size operation you have or weather you have hive in dunedin or kaitaia we are able to have your bees covered.
Within our designated areas we do travel to further away areas and offer group bookings so as to minimise the travel costings and maximise the impact we can have on American foulbrood and improve your ROI on the investment of the American foulbrood services
With our nation wide network we are able to offer a very competitive service to provide you and your bees a quick and easy solution to your American foulbrood issues.
