With the moving tail, the outstanding tongue and the erect ears, Hummer, a young mixed breed dog with a bright black fur, sits in front of a smell sample of a browser worm, quickly accepting the praise and sweets of its caregiver.
Trained to detect the smell of the borer, a carnivorous plague that has infected Mexico’s cattle and interrupted cattle trade with the United States, Hummer and his canine colleagues offer a ray of hope in control of the Barrenador worm.
In a training center administered by the Government, one hour from Mexico City, officials of a special unit of the National Health Security Service (Senasica) carry out an intensive training program of three months for a select group of dogs to detect the bare -bare worm and other pests or diseases in living animals or agricultural products.
Rescued dogs
Most dogs are rescued from shelters, allowing animals that were abandoned because they are too difficult to find a new life.
The restless puppies that steal food from the table, never calm down and have an incessant desire to play are the perfect candidates.
Lee: New US closure per barely worm is a hard blow: Coahuila farmers
“Sometimes, what people do not want is ideal for us,” said César Dangu, director of the Ceacan Canine Training Center.
“We must also look for other qualities: that they do not get angry, that they are affectionate, that can live with people and other animals.”
Not everyone detects the smell of the bullshit worm
Not all dogs respond to the aroma of the borers, a plague that infesses cattle and wildlife and transports worms that are introduced into the skin of living animals, causing already often fatal serious damage.
Some dogs refuse to approach the aroma, Dangu said, which makes those who adapt to him even more valuable in his task.
LEE: meat producers in Mexico defend work in front of the baranger worm
After cases began to emerge in Mexico, the United States closed its southern border to imports from certain animals, including cattle, in May, before a gradual reopening began this week.
However, on Wednesday the US government closed the border to the cattle after a new case of a browser worm was detected in Veracruz, about 595 kilometers south of the US border. A decision that President Claudia Sheinbaum described as “exaggerated.”
They train dogs in high temperatures
On a sunny afternoon in Ceacan, a few hours after the announcement of the closing of the border, the work of the dogs acquired new urgency.
There are only six dogs detector of barenting worms working in a border passage of cattle in Chiapas, which limits with Guatemala, the heart of the plague of the borer worm in Mexico.
Havana, a two -year German shepherd, practices the detection of the chesting worm with a team the size of a cow inside a greenhouse, a training exercise that seeks to imitate the suffocating heat that dogs must tolerate in Chiapas, said Instructor Mayte Tontle.
“We want our dogs to adapt as much as possible to real -life conditions,” Tontle said.
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With at least 47 new cases of baranger worm detected daily in Mexico, according to government data, the handful of highly trained canines is a small element of Mexico’s response, which also includes an installation of 51 million dollars in Chiapas to produce sterile flies to reduce the reproductive population of wild flies.
The plant is expected to be a strong investment of 21 million dollars from the US to be ready in the first half of 2026.
Dogs trained in CEACAN will work until eight years of service or 10 years, which happens first. After that, they retire.
“I would say that 99% of dogs are adopted by their owner. There is an unwavering link due to the love between the owner and the dog,” said Dangu.
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