Penn Vet Uses Dogs to Detect New World Screwworm

By Blake Jackson

The Working Dog Center at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine has secured a two-year, $404,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to explore the use of detection dogs in identifying the soil-stage New World Screwworm (NWS).

The funding was awarded through the USDA’s New World Screwworm Grand Challenge program and supports the agency’s broader Domestic Readiness and Response Initiative.

Because research involving live New World Screwworms is subject to strict regulations, scientists will use a closely related proxy species during the study.

The project aims to determine whether specially trained detection dogs can accurately identify the scent of screwworms while they remain underground.

Researchers will conduct both laboratory-based olfactometer testing and field evaluations to measure detection accuracy, search efficiency, and the distance at which buried targets can be located.

The New World Screwworm is a damaging parasite that threatens livestock, pets, wildlife, and, in rare cases, humans. Its larvae feed on the living tissue of warm-blooded animals, causing serious health concerns.

Although the pest was eliminated from the United States in 1966 and a later outbreak in the Florida Keys was eradicated in 2017, concerns have resurfaced following renewed activity in Panama beginning in 2023 and subsequent northward spread.

As of June 22, officials had confirmed 16 New World Screwworm cases in Texas involving cattle, goats, and sheep, along with one infected dog in New Mexico.

The Penn Vet Working Dog Center is internationally recognized for canine scent detection research. Its dogs have successfully identified odor signatures linked to diseases and invasive species, including hemangiosarcoma, ovarian cancer, chronic wasting disease, spotted lanternflies, and COVID-19.

The project was one of only 40 selected for funding from 226 submissions, highlighting its potential to strengthen surveillance and response efforts against the New World Screwworm.

Photo Credit: gettyimages-imaginegolf