Finland is the first country in the world where dogs are being trained to recognise=sniff out and locate root rot in spruce and rust-causing fungi in pine. 15 dogs are being trained to identify dangerous pathogens in the forest, and their keen sense of smell will help to prevent at least €50 million in losses.

The dogs' training will take one year. Heterobasidion parviporum, together with Heterobasidion annosum, causes rot in their host plants – spruce and pine respectively – resulting in €50 million of losses annually in Finland.

"We hope that the dogs will be able to learn to detect this scent as quickly as possible..."

As is well known, dogs have an exceptional sense of smell, which is used for other tasks such as detecting drugs and explosives, investigating the causes of fires, or checking cargo. In agriculture, dogs help to determine when livestock (cows) are becoming too hot.

In forestry, dogs have previously helped to detect the spruce bark beetle in Sweden and the Czech Republic. Regarding the presence of pathogens, Finnish researchers emphasise that any pathogen detected by a dog must be checked and confirmed by a human.
Sanna Vinblad's photograph from the original material used