Cold noses to the rescue: The INTA Yuto, in Jujuy, promotes the use of trained dogs to detect the HLB vector and prevent

HLB - or Huanglongbing - is the most serious disease for citrus fruits worldwide. Its main complexity lies in the fact that it has no cure, and it can take up to four years to show visible symptoms. For this reason, prevention is currently the best tool for its control. And in the search for new strategies to achieve this, a proposal from Jujuy became one of the most striking. It involves the use of trained dogs to track and detect the entry of citrus propagation material — plants, plant remains, buds, or sticks — that pose a phytosanitary risk to the NOA region, which, unlike the NEA, is free of this disease. The work began in 2019, with the Canine Detection in Crops (DCC) team and INTA Yuto, in coordination with the Phytosanitary Association of Northwestern Argentina (AFINOA) and endorsed by the Salta-Jujuy COPROSAVE (comprising Senasa, Inase, Inta, UNSa, UNJu, and the production ministries of both provinces). Known as cynology, this tool allows for a rapid, precise, and ...