April is Invasive Plant Pest and Disease Awareness Month
(Photo — inspection dog Yeti on the job in San Diego County, alongside handler Jeremy Partch)
The purpose of California’s Dog Teams, a joint program between CDFA, the USDA, and county agricultural commissioners, is to enhance inspection and surveillance activities related to plant products entering the State of California via parcel delivery facilities and airfreight terminals, to help protect the food supply, the environment, and plant health.
Most dogs in the program have been rescued through animal shelters, breed rescue groups, and newspaper/internet ads.
Dogs selected for the program have been screened for high food drive, sociability, intelligence, physical soundness and low anxiety levels.
Dogs and handlers must complete an intense eight-week training program at the USDA National Detector Dog Training Center (Newnan, Georgia) prior to beginning inspections in California. Dogs are initially trained to detect the following five target odors in parcels: citrus, apple, mango, guava and stone fruit. Once the teams have mastered the five target odors, handlers work with their partners to increase their repertoire to plants, soil, insects, etc.
Once fully trained, the dogs alert on marked and unmarked parcels that contain agricultural products. Trained biologists then inspect the packages for any unwanted plant pests, including insect species, diseases or other harmful organisms that may pose a threat.
Currently, California Dog Teams conduct inspections at the US Postal Service, UPS, FedEx, OnTrac, and other private parcel carriers throughout California.
California Dog Teams operate out of the following counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Fresno, Los Angeles (3 teams), Sacramento (2 teams), San Bernardino, San Diego (2 teams), Santa Barbara and Santa Clara.
Over the life of the program, Dog Teams have alerted on thousands of marked and unmarked parcels containing agricultural products, and as result a number of those have been cited for violation of state and federal plant quarantine laws and regulations.