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   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    Trained dogs can sniff out a deadly deer disease    
      
     Date:   
         February 8, 2023   
     Source:   
         University of Pennsylvania   
     Summary:   
         A study has demonstrated that pet dogs could be trained to sniff out   
         chronic wasting disease, a deadly ailment that affects deer. The   
         proof- of-concept investigation suggests detection dogs could be   
         an asset in the effort to identify, contain, and manage the highly   
         contagious disease.   
      
      
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   FULL STORY   
   ==========================================================================   
   Charlie, Jari, and Kiwi are pet dogs with a superpower: Their sensitive   
   noses can distinguish between a healthy deer and one sick with chronic   
   wasting disease (CWD), all from a whiff of the deer's poop.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   That's the finding of a study by scientists from Penn's School of   
   Veterinary Medicine, published in the journal Prion. Using feces   
   samples from CWD-positive deer and deer in which CWD was not detected,   
   the researchers trained the dogs to identify the odor of CWD, alerting   
   their handlers to its presence in the lab and in the field.   
      
   "We were already quite certain that the dogs could detect the volatile   
   organic compounds released by chronic wasting disease in feces," says   
   Amritha Mallikarjun, a postdoctoral researcher in Penn Vet's Working   
   Dog Center and lead author on the study. "Not only did we show this was   
   possible, but we also answered a second, more interesting question,   
   which is, Can they detect the disease in a simulated field setting,   
   as they would if we were using the dogs to find the disease in the   
   landscape of a forest or on a deer farm?"  The dogs indeed could, with   
   enough accuracy to suggest that detection dogs could be a useful strategy   
   in the fight to manage CWD.   
      
   "We learned a lot through the study and are now set up well to continue   
   refining our training," says Cynthia Otto, the senior author on the   
   study and director of the Working Dog Center.   
      
   CWD is a disease that affects a variety of deer species, including   
   white-tailed deer, mule deer, and elk. Always fatal and highly contagious,   
   the disease can hide away in an affected animal for a year or two   
   before symptoms manifest: the deer losing weight -- "wasting" -- and   
   developing neurological signs, like stumbling and drooling. No cure or   
   treatment exists.   
      
   The disease has been in Pennsylvania since 2012, and the state has   
   invested significantly in trying to contain it, with several tools in   
   place for keeping tabs on its spread. One hurdle is figuring out which   
   deer are affected. A healthy-looking but infected animal could shed   
   prions, malformed and infectious proteins, for many months or even years   
   before succumbing to the illness.   
      
   What's more, prions are known to bind to soil, potentially contaminating   
   the land on which other animals may roam.   
      
   The gold-standard diagnostic test can only be performed after death   
   by assessing an affected animal's brain. Some alternative tests have   
   been trialed that involve taking a biopsy from a potentially infected   
   animal while it's still alive, but deer are known to be highly stressed   
   by being captured, and collecting these samples can be physically and   
   logistically difficult for the people involved as well.   
      
   The Working Dog Center, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture,   
   and the Wildlife Futures Program, a partnership between Penn Vet and the   
   Pennsylvania Game Commission, were well positioned to try to contribute   
   an additional technique for managing the disease: dogs and their highly   
   sensitive noses.   
      
   Ideally, dogs trained to discern CWD-positive from CWD-not-detected   
   feces in a forest or deer farm could help state agencies and private   
   landowners understand whether further testing or management would be   
   needed to keep their land and herds free from the disease.   
      
   First, scientists had to prove the dogs could make this distinction   
   reliably.   
      
   The Working Dog Center began by enlisting three dogs from their citizen   
   science program -- Labrador retrievers Charlie and Kiwi and Finnish spitz   
   Jari -- to train on the Center's "scent wheel," a contraption equipped   
   with eight ports, each containing a specific substance or scent.   
      
   The dogs proved adept at this task. Once they had been trained,   
   using samples provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and   
   processed by the Wildlife Futures Program, the dogs responded with   
   great specificity, passing by the not- detected samples 90-95% of the   
   time. Their sensitivity, however, was not as strong, alerting to just 40%   
   of the positive samples. Overall, the researchers found that the dogs   
   spent more time at the ports containing positive samples than those with   
   not-detected samples, suggesting that they perceived a difference even   
   if they didn't always produce the trained response, such as a bark or   
   sitting down when they smelled the positive sample.   
      
   Moving toward a more naturalistic setting, the researchers then   
   experimented with having the dogs and their handlers try to discern   
   CWD-positive samples placed throughout a large, privately owned field. To   
   avoid contaminating the soil or having the dogs come in contact with the   
   samples, two-gram samples of feces were placed in jars with mesh lids   
   to allow the odor to waft out and then partially buried in the ground   
   in different areas.   
      
   The researchers observed that the dogs responded to the positive samples   
   more often than the not-detect samples in the field trial. In total,   
   they detected eight of 11 positive samples in the field, with a false   
   negative rate of 13%.   
      
   Both handlers and dogs seemed to improve as they went, their accuracy   
   increasing after their first field search.   
      
   "Given the amount of time that we trained these dogs and the novel   
   environment, not to mention the fact that these are pet dogs and not   
   trained search dogs, our results are promising," says Mallikarjun. "As we   
   move forward and work with dogs that are specifically trained to search in   
   a field setting and devote their entire lives to detecting this odor, they   
   are going to do an even better job."  That's a step the Wildlife Futures   
   Program is already taking, with canine handlers training "professional"   
   detection dogs how to canvas fields and forests, searching for CWD.   
      
   The researchers believe that, while dogs don't represent a silver bullet   
   in the fight against CWD, they may prove useful as an early warning   
   system, helping fill gaps in knowledge from other monitoring systems   
   and management approaches.   
      
   "These dogs could increase the odds of catching an outbreak early,"   
   says Lisa Murphy, a study co-author and co-director of the Wildlife   
   Futures Program.   
      
   The Penn Vet team is also collaborating with other groups not only to work   
   with detection dogs but also to identify the odor dogs may be responding   
   to in order to develop other systems for early detection. The lessons   
   learned could be broadly useful.   
      
   "If we're able to tap into what we've learned with chronic wasting   
   disease and apply it to other issues in agriculture and conservation,   
   these dogs could be a major asset," Otto says.   
      
   Amritha Mallikarjun is a postdoctoral fellow in the University of   
   Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.   
      
   Lisa Murphy is resident director of PADLS New Bolton Center, a professor   
   of toxicology, associate director of the Institute for Infectious and   
   Zoonotic Diseases, and co-director of the Wildlife Futures Program at   
   Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine.   
      
   Cynthia Otto is a professor of working dog sciences and sports medicine   
   and director of the Working Dog Center in Penn's School of Veterinary   
   Medicine.   
      
   Mallikarjun, Murphy, and Otto's coauthors were Penn Vet's Ben Swartz,   
   Sarah A.   
      
   Kane, Michelle Gibison, Isabella Wilson, Amanda Collins, Madison B. Moore,   
   Ila Charendoff, and Julie Ellis and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's   
   Tracy Nichols. Mallikarjun is corresponding author on the study.   
      
   The work was supported by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and   
   the Wildlife Futures Program at the University of Pennsylvania School   
   of Veterinary Medicine.   
      
       * RELATED_TOPICS   
             o Plants_&_Animals   
                   # Dogs # Veterinary_Medicine #   
                   Animal_Learning_and_Intelligence # Prions   
             o Earth_&_Climate   
                   # Ecology # Sustainability # Environmental_Policy #   
                   Rainforests   
       * RELATED_TERMS   
             o Dog_skin_disorders o Dog_health o Guide_dog o Service_dog   
             o Prion o Pandemic o Hunting_dog o Therapy_dog   
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Pennsylvania. Original   
   written by Katherine Unger Baillie. Note: Content may be edited for   
   style and length.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Journal Reference:   
      1. Amritha Mallikarjun, Ben Swartz, Sarah A. Kane, Michelle Gibison,   
         Isabella Wilson, Amanda Collins, Madison B. Moore, Ila Charendoff,   
         Julie Ellis, Lisa A. Murphy, Tracy Nichols, Cynthia M. Otto. Canine   
         detection of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in laboratory and field   
         settings. Prion, 2023; 17 (1): 16 DOI: 10.1080/19336896.2023.2169519   
   ==========================================================================   
      
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/02/230208191721.htm   
      
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