Belize Joins Regional Canine Training to Boost Border Biosecurity

A Belizean official and a rescued shelter dog are among five new canine detection teams now undergoing specialized training in Mexico.  The six-week programme is being held at Mexico’s Canine Training Centre and includes four handlers from the Dominican Republic and one from Belize. Each official has been paired with a dog selected from an animal shelter or received through a donation.  Once the training is completed, the teams will return to their respective countries and assist with inspections at ports, airports and border crossings. The dogs will be trained to detect food and agricultural products that could carry pests or diseases.  The programme is run by Mexico’s National Service for Animal and Plant Health, Food Safety and Quality, known as Senasica. It is also supported by the Regional International Organization for Agricultural Health and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture.  Officials say the dogs provide an added layer of protection against threats such as African swine fever, Tropical Race 4, which affects bananas and plantains, and the giant African snail. These pests and diseases can spread through contaminated food, plants, soil and other agricultural products brought across borders.  The training also gives abandoned dogs a second chance by preparing them for work alongside inspection officers.  The latest group is the centre’s eighty-second graduating class. Over nearly fifteen years, the facility has trained more than four hundred canine detection teams, including seventy-three units for Belize and seven other countries in Central America and the Caribbean.