Rebecca Manzi A retired police dog in Michigan now sniffs out bee diseases, offering beekeepers a fast, low-stress tool for protecting hives from devastating bacterial outbreaks.
@Michigan State University
Maple, an English springer spaniel now enjoying retirement, has found herself in a new and rather unexpected line of work: protecting bees in Michigan. Once a police dog trained to track human remains, Maple now uses her extraordinary nose to sniff out colonies infected with American foulbrood, a highly contagious bacterial disease that can wipe out entire hives.
Dressed in a custom-made protective suit—complete with a hood for her ears and tiny booties for her paws—Maple can wander among the hives without the risk of being stung. The equipment, adapted specifically for canine safety in apiary environments, is essential, as her trainer and owner Sue Stejskal explains.
A new role after retirement
Maple officially retired from police service in 2024 after an injury forced her to step aside. Yet retirement didn’t mean idleness. Instead, fate handed her a second, equally valuable mission: the preservation of bees. Working alongside professor Meghan Milbrath of Michigan State University, Maple became the pilot participant in a training program designed to teach dogs how to detect diseases in hives. The hope is that her work will become a model for others, eventually allowing more dogs to join the effort and provide beekeepers with a powerful new ally.
In training sessions, Maple identifies infected colonies by sniffing markers left by scientists, then signals the discovery calmly and precisely. Every successful find earns her praise and playtime, which reinforces her behavior and keeps the work joyful. “She loves it—it’s more of a game than a job for her,” her trainer notes, a reminder that for dogs, serious work often overlaps with fun.
Innovation in conservation
The implications of Maple’s work go far beyond a single apiary. Bees are a keystone species, essential not only for ecosystems but also for agriculture, since so many crops depend on pollination. By using trained dogs as a form of rapid screening, beekeepers can avoid long, stressful manual inspections of hives. The result is a process that’s faster, safer, and more efficient—for both humans and bees.
Michigan State University is carefully documenting Maple’s progress, with plans to publish findings and training manuals. The goal is to make the method replicable, enabling other states to adopt it and expand its benefits. In this way, Maple’s second career could have a reach far greater than the fields she patrols.
Even in retirement, Maple proves that a dog’s potential doesn’t have to fade. With her unmatched nose and quiet dedication, she shows that service—whether to people or to nature—can take many forms, and sometimes the most unlikely ones are also the most impactful.
The economic threat of American Foulbrood
You might ask: “Okay, this is cute and innovative, but how big is the risk?” It’s not trivial. American foulbrood (AFB) is so virulent that once a hive is infected, there’s no cure—the only recourse, in many jurisdictions, is to destroy the colony and sterilize or discard equipment. (Penn State Extension)
Estimated losses tied to bee colony deaths across the U.S. already run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. A recent survey reported that more than 1.1 million honey bee colonies were lost in one period, translating into at least $224.8 million in direct replacement costs (at about $200 per colony), not counting labor, feed, or treatment costs. When you add in lost pollination revenue (for example, almond pollination contracts), the total impact can exceed $428 million. (Honey Bee Health Coalition)
That said, quantifying losses specifically from AFB (versus other causes) is harder, but the disease is frequently cited among the highest-impact threats in apiculture. (ScienceDirect) Furthermore, a 2018 USDA-Economic Research Service report notes that rising losses among managed colonies have driven up pollination service fees (especially for almonds) by about 2 to 3 percent per year—or more in some cases. (Economic Research Service)
In short: beekeepers face a double hit. They must absorb the direct cost of losing hives, and they lose access to pollination contracts or suffer reputational or production setbacks. In that context, anything that helps early detection—like a dog that can smell disease—is more than a novelty. It’s a hedge against massive losses.
Fonte: Michigan State University
