Honey bee researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) are enlisting a four-legged ally to sniff out a disease that threatens the vital insects.

Maple, an English Springer Spaniel, used to work for law enforcement, but now she's doing her bit for the planet to help keep nature's prized pollinators in good health. In her latest role, she's the queen bee among researchers at Michigan State University—helping to sniff out danger to honey bees.

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.

“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,” Sue Stejskal, a Michigan State grad who has been training dogs says.

A panting Maple stands patiently as Stejskal, her longtime owner/trainer/handler, slowly places the once-retired K-9 in a yellow protective suit, complete with a veil for her head and four booties that are slipped over her paws in case Maple steps on a bee.

“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. So, there’s been some altering and testing,” says Stejskal.

Meghan Milbrath, an MSU professor whose lab studies risk factors that affect honey bees’ health, was working to establish diagnostic and screening tools for honey bee diseases and to train honey bee veterinarians. One of the vets put her in touch with Stejskal. They met, and the dog detection plan was born.

Stejskal then set about teaching an old dog a new trick. New to Maple, anyway. Maryland’s agriculture department previously used canine detection methods in beehives.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.