Fruit fly detector dogs put to work to beat outbreak

As part of an Australian-first pilot program, four-year-old Border Collie-Koolie Max and three-year-old German Shepherd Rylee have completed their 16-week training course and will get to work.

Throughout October, a trial will be in place to see if this new and innovative tool for finding fruit fly will work, before it is potentially expanded.

Primary Industries and Regional Development Minister Clare Scriven said this trial was an important part of making sure everything was being done to stop fruit fly within SA.

She says the dogs will be focused in the Riverland, where there are presently 15 outbreaks.

"It's really important we focus on that area so we can restore our fruit fly area status that is so important to our primary producers in terms of access to world markets and ensure we can maintain those markets," she said.

"PIRSA will be working very closely with the landholders, as they have been for the past couple of years.

"Landholders will be able to ask to have dogs come on to their properties and be part of this detection process."

The dogs have been trained by father and daughter handlers Danny Wood and Gemma Wood, Loxton.

Ms Wood said the training was carried out by taking the "target odour" - with the larvae and pupae supplied by irradiated samples from the Port Augusta sterile insert facility - and pairing that with the dogs' rewards.

"They are trained to locate the item and then drop to alert to us that they have found it," she said.

"Emotionally, they also get quite happy with themselves."

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Ms Wood said this was an important project to be part of.

"We were born and raised in Loxton, which makes this project that much more special to us," she said.

"The fruit fly outbreak is affecting our friends and family day-in and day-out, so this hits very close to home."

Ms Scriven said the purpose of the trial was to see if this could be rolled out in a larger sense.

"We want to make sure we're using everything we can to protect our state," she said.

She said dogs have previously been used in controlled environments overseas to detect Mediterranean fruit fly larvae but this was the first time they have been used for Queensland fruit fly.

In the overseas example, the dogs searched 100 pieces of fruit in less than seven minutes, identifying three infested fruits.