Meet the English springer spaniel who sniffs out threats to honey bee colonies

(11 Aug 2025) US HONEY BEE DOG DETECTION SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS RESTRICTION SUMMARY: LENGTH: 05:58 ASSOCIATED PRESS East Lansing, Michigan – 6 August 2025 1. Handler Sue Stejskal leads Maple through a demonstration of how the English springer spaniel is able to detect the presence of American foulbrood 2. Maple sits and looks up at Stejskal, indicating the dog has determined AFB’s presence 3. Various of Michigan State University honey bee researcher Meghan Milbrath holding a beehive frame filled with bees 4. SOUNDBITE (English) Meghan Milbrath, Michigan State University honey bee researcher: “Here at Michigan State, we work a lot with honey bee bacterial diseases and other pests that affect honey bees. One of the projects we're excited about is working with Maple, who we are training to detect for the honey bee disease American foulbrood.” 5. Stejskal walks Maple to the demonstration site 6. Stejskal puts the veil of Maple’s protective suit over the dog’s head 7. Maple runs and picks up her toy off the grass 8. Stejskal plays with Maple 9. SOUNDBITE (English) Sue Stejskal, Maple’s handler: “It's pretty much the same across the board, whether you're training a narcotics dog or explosives dog: You take the target odor, you present it to them, and through a series of kind of systematic and repetitive training, you start to -- the dog starts to learn to correlate the odor, the target odor, with something good is going to happen.” 10. Stejskal holds up Maple’s protective suit 11. Various of Strejskal putting the suit on Maple 12. SOUNDBITE (English) Sue Stejskal, Maple’s handler: “Much like with humans, we recognize that if a dog is going to be in an active bee yard, they need to wear the same personal protective equipment as people do. And so, that is a bee suit. You can't buy them on Amazon for dogs. And so, there's been some altering and testing and that type of thing.” 13. Maple stands still as Stejskal puts the suit on her 14. Stejskal puts a boot on one of Maple’s paws 15. SOUNDBITE (English) Sue Stejskal, Maple’s handler: “She also wears boots, because quite often in a bee yard there'll be bees on the ground, and we don't want her stepping on them.” 16. Maple having her suit put on 17. Maple with boots on all four of her paws 18. A fully suited-up Maple on the move 19. SOUNDBITE (English) Sue Stejskal, Maple’s handler: “The bee suit is still a work in progress. We're getting there, and she's comfortable and working in it. Fortunately for Maple, her drive exceeds her, ‘Why am I wearing this suit? Why am I doing this?’” 20. Maple getting outfitted 21. SOUNDBITE (English) Sue Stejskal, Maple’s handler: “So, I know a lot of people are always concerned about heat and her getting hot. If it's hot outside, we don't work, we don't train.” 22. Milbrath manipulates the beehive 23. Bees fly in and out of the bottom of their enclosure 24. Stejskal adjusts Maple’s veil 25. Maple sniffs around during another demo, correctly landing on the AFB scent 26. SOUNDBITE (English) Meghan Milbrath, Michigan State University honey bee researcher: “The idea with the dogs is that they can work as a screening tool. So, we have beekeepers that have 5,000, 10,000 colonies. And it's very hard to go through them with enough rigor to actually see all of the disease.” 27. Maple is called by and runs to Stejskal 28. Milbrath and the bees 29. SOUNDBITE (English) Meghan Milbrath, Michigan State University honey bee researcher: 30. Various of Stejskal leading around Maple 31. SOUNDBITE (English) Sue Stejskal, Maple’s handler: STORYLINE: LEAD-IN: Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...