ENCI, under the patronage of ISPRA (Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research), LEGAMBIENTE, SIEF (Italian Society of Ecopathology of Fauna) and Federico II University of Naples, Dept. of Veterinary Medicine, is carrying out a pilot project aimed at training pairs handler-dog suitable for the detection of wild boar carcasses, to be used in monitoring operations, as part of the prevention and control projects of African swine fever.
Being able to rapidly detect wild boar carcasses is fundamental, in the context of ASF prevention and control strategies, and it is for this reason that ENCI has carried out this first experimental project for the preparation of detection dogs, trained in wild boar carcass detection. These dogs, in fact, have a much wider potential for use than the use of human operators, and can be summarized through the following points:
greater effectiveness: using the sense of smell instead of visual parameters, the dog can in fact inspect the areas subject to investigation more quickly, including those that are difficult to access and walk through;
non-invasive monitoring: the work of a detection dog takes place under the control of the handler and in silence, so as to limit the disturbance to non-target fauna present in the monitoring areas and reduce the risk of a possible removal, over long distances, from that area;
absence of contact with the research target: dogs are trained in the so-called "passive signaling", that is to signal the presence of the target by immobilizing or sitting near it without having any contact with it;
possibility of covering the research area in a more widespread, effective and quick way, especially in the case of dense vegetation;
potential reduction in staff use
The monitoring, in the health field, conducted with the aid of detection dogs appears, therefore, to constitute a rapid and effective response to the problems connected with the need to find the carcasses of animals which represent the central point in a program in which theearly warning it is essential to reduce the huge impacts that this disease can cause on human activities as well as on the species and how much it depends on it.