| dc.description.abstract | The brown spruce longhorn beetle (BSLB), Tetropium fuscum, native to Europe and Asia, is an alien wood-boring insect of quarantine significance with established populations in Atlantic Canada. In their non-native range, the BSLB kills spruce trees, primarily red spruce, Picea rubens, and is therefore a potential threat to the ecological integrity of forest habitats and the availability of resources for pulp and paper in North America. Collective efforts have been undertaken by the Canadian Forest Service (CFS) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), including slow-the-spread programs to eradicate this invasive pest. Identification of infested trees is currently achieved by human visual ground surveys for characteristic signs and symptoms of tree trunks or pruned branches. Although usually reliable, false positives and misses occur, which lead to wasted human resources and unnecessary tree removal. Early detection of infestation is crucial to the management and eradication of this invasive insect. The primary objective of this proof-of-concept study is to determine whether sniffer dogs are able to be trained to detect the BSLB in laboratory conditions. The application of trained sniffer dogs is anticipated to improve current BSLB management strategies by having a high positive predictive power as well as a low proportion of false alarms and misses regardless of the presence of physical/visual symptoms of infestation. Three volunteer dogs were selected based on their motivation to work and ability to detect low saliency stimuli. Dogs were trained in psychophysical matching procedures of BSLB larvae. All the dogs have the ability to detect the larvae up to 100% accuracy in the presence of ecologically valid distracting stimuli. In addition to providing a potential novel avenue for forest pest management, the researchers anticipate applying the methodology to other invasive insect species, such as the emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis.
Keywords: brown spruce longhorn beetle, Tetropium fuscum, canine scent detection, forest pest management, invasive insect, sniffer dog | en_US |
