Canine ‘Mira’, a German Shepard/Belgian malinois mix, interrogating citrus trees arranged in rows. Trees from the USDA, ARS Exotic Citrus Pathogen Collection in Beltsville, Maryland, USA placed on the lawn outside the facility. Canine alerts by sitting next to the CLas-positive tree, i.e. target but does not react to other citrus pathogens, incl. viruses, viroids, spiroplasma, and other bacteria. The canine continues the run of the remaining trees, incl. past two trees infected with Sprioplasma citri (causal agent of citrus stubborn) eventually coming to and alerting on a CLaf-positive tree, i.e. infected with Candidatus Liberibacter africanus, the African form of HLB.
Timothy Gottwald, Gavin Poole, Thomas McCollum, David Hall, John Hartung, Jinhe Bai, Weiqi Luo, Drew Posny, Yong-Ping Duan, Earl Taylor, John da Graça, MaryLou Polek, Frank Louws, and William Schneider
PNAS. 2020. 117:3492-3501 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1914296117