Sarcoptic-mange detector dogs used to identify infected animals during outbreaks in wildlife

In this paper we report on a study running over a period of 15？years, in which - for the first time to our knowledge - two disease-detector dogs were trained to follow the scent of Sarcoptes-infected animals and to find carcasses, even under the snow, and apparently no false positives were detected in fieldwork. Sarcoptic mange-detector dogs were used to collect the carcasses of 292 mangy wild animals and to identify, separate from their herd, and capture 63 mange-infected wild animals in the Italian Alps.Properly trained disease-detector dogs are an efficient and straightforward tool for surveillance and control of sarcoptic mange in affected wild animal populations.Despite the fact that the first known scientific experiment using dogs’ olfactory abilities dates back to the late nineteenth century [1], only limited scientific research has ever taken advantage of these animals’ sense of smell (e.g. [2,3]). Air-scent detection dogs are widely used by law enforcement agencies to identify narcotics, explosives, and contraband, and also by fire investigators to detect the presence of accelerant materials. Detector canines are also used by police, military, and rescue service to locate missing or lost peoples, natural or mass disasters victims, and for locating partial scattered human remains [4]. Thirty kinds of detector dogs have been documented [2], and recently dogs were used for bed bugs detection as a safer alternative to blind pesticide use [5], but to the best of our knowledge there are no cases of dogs having been trained to detect wildlife diseases.In the field of wildlife conservation, there are two key factors in disease monitoring and control (when the latter is feasible or desirable): (i) the rapid detection and removal of infected carcasses, and (ii) the rapid and accurate identification, separation and capture of the infected animals for treatment or euthanasia, if indicated [6-8]. Both infected carcasses and sick animals are potential sources of infectio