EAST LANSING, Mich. — Researchers at a Michigan State University facility dedicated to protecting honey bees are enlisting a four-legged ally to sniff out danger to the prized pollinators.
The Pollinator Performance Center’s wide range of projects includes developing a training program for dogs to use their sensitive noses to uncover a bacterial disease called American foulbrood that threatens honey bee larvae.
Bees and other pollinators have been declining for years because of disease, insecticides, climate change and lack of a diverse food supply. A considerable portion of the human diet comes from plants pollinated by bees…