Dogs Smell Crop Disease Affecting Citrus Trees
2020-02-17
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1New research suggests that dogs might be able to help save diseased citrus trees.
2A group of scientists trained dogs to use their sense of smell to detect a crop disease called citrus greening.
3The disease has affected orange, lemon and grapefruit trees in the American states of Florida, California and Texas.
4The dogs can detect the disease weeks to years before it appears on tree leaves and roots, the researchers report.
5A study on their findings was published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
6The report says using dogs is also faster, less costly and more exact than having people collect hundreds of leaves for lab analysis.
7Timothy Gottwald is a researcher with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a co-writer of the study.
8He told The Associated Press, "This technology is thousands of years old - the dog's nose. We've just trained dogs to hunt new prey: the bacteria that causes a very damaging crop disease."
9Citrus greening is caused by a bacteria that is spread by a tiny insect that feeds on the leaves and stems of citrus trees.
10Once a tree is infected, there is no cure.
11The disease has also hurt citrus crops in Central and South America and Asia.
12In one experiment involving grapefruit trees in Texas, trained dogs were correct 95 percent of the time in telling the difference between newly infected trees and healthy ones.
13"The earlier you detect a disease, the better chance you have at stopping an epidemic" by removing infected trees, Gottwald said.
14Matteo Garbelotto studies plants at the University of California, Berkeley.
15He says the new research shows that dogs can detect an infection well before current methods.
16Garbelotto has been involved in similar research but had no part in the new study.
17Laura Sims is a plant scientist with Louisiana Tech University.
18She praised the steps taken to find out if the dogs were detecting the bacteria itself or a plant's reaction to an infection.
19To do that, the researchers infected different kinds of unrelated plants with the bacteria in a laboratory.
20The dogs were still able to pick out the infected plants.
21Gottwald said, "You've seen dogs working in airports, detecting drugs and explosives. Maybe soon you will see them working on more farms."
22I'm Jonathan Evans.
1New research suggests that dogs might be able to help save diseased citrus trees. 2A group of scientists trained dogs to use their sense of smell to detect a crop disease called citrus greening. The disease has affected orange, lemon and grapefruit trees in the American states of Florida, California and Texas. 3The dogs can detect the disease weeks to years before it appears on tree leaves and roots, the researchers report. A study on their findings was published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 4The report says using dogs is also faster, less costly and more exact than having people collect hundreds of leaves for lab analysis. 5Timothy Gottwald is a researcher with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a co-writer of the study. He told The Associated Press, "This technology is thousands of years old - the dog's nose. We've just trained dogs to hunt new prey: the bacteria that causes a very damaging crop disease." 6Citrus greening is caused by a bacteria that is spread by a tiny insect that feeds on the leaves and stems of citrus trees. Once a tree is infected, there is no cure. 7The disease has also hurt citrus crops in Central and South America and Asia. 8In one experiment involving grapefruit trees in Texas, trained dogs were correct 95 percent of the time in telling the difference between newly infected trees and healthy ones. 9"The earlier you detect a disease, the better chance you have at stopping an epidemic" by removing infected trees, Gottwald said. 10Matteo Garbelotto studies plants at the University of California, Berkeley. He says the new research shows that dogs can detect an infection well before current methods. Garbelotto has been involved in similar research but had no part in the new study. 11Laura Sims is a plant scientist with Louisiana Tech University. She praised the steps taken to find out if the dogs were detecting the bacteria itself or a plant's reaction to an infection. 12To do that, the researchers infected different kinds of unrelated plants with the bacteria in a laboratory. The dogs were still able to pick out the infected plants. 13Gottwald said, "You've seen dogs working in airports, detecting drugs and explosives. Maybe soon you will see them working on more farms." 14I'm Jonathan Evans. 15Christina Larson reported this story for the Associated Press. Jonathan Evans adapted it for Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor. 16________________________________________________ 17Words in This Story 18citrus - n. a juicy fruit such as an orange, grapefruit, or lemon that has a thick skin and that comes from a tree or shrub that grows in warm areas 19detect - v. to discover or notice the presence of something that is hidden or hard to see, hear, taste, etc. 20epidemic - n. an occurrence in which a disease spreads very quickly and affects a large number of people 21stem - n. the main stalk of a plant that develops buds and shoots and usually grows above ground