Scientists at the US department of agriculture's Florida research station have found that canker appears to have an odour distinctive enough for a dog to be trained to alert others if it smells it on a tree. This could also reduce the time necessary to survey citrus plantations.
Florida newspapers have reported that dogs apparently have the ability to detect the agent causing the disease - xanthamonas - and now researchers need to find out whether they can distinguish it from other disease-causing agents.
Work is being done at a dog training facility in California with sterile cloth pads that have had a stream of air filtered through them which has been across canker-infected leaves. So far the dogs have been able to pick out the target cloth from others not exposed to canker.
If trials prove successful, it could mean more sophisticated means of dealing with canker rather than Florida's rule in its on-going battle against citrus canker of destroying all trees - canker-ridden or otherwise - within a 579metre radius of the infected material.
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