TY - JOUR
T1 - An assessment of working canine contamination from standing liquid hazards during a simulated disaster search scenario
AU - Perry, Erin B.
AU - Discepolo, Dakota R.
AU - Jenkins, Eileen K.
AU - Kelsey, Kathleen M.
AU - Liang, Stephen Y.
N1 - Funding Information:
Support for this project was provided by Southern Illinois University, College of Agricultural Sciences and Royal Canin. Additionally, SYL received support through the Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital and the Washington University Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences which is, in part, supported by the NIH / National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program ( UL1TR002345 ).
Funding Information:
The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the support of the handlers and canine teams from Florida Task Force 1, and Florida Task Force 2. In addition, the authors also gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Alyssa Valach and Caitlin Neander during data collection. The authors also wish to thank Chief Alan Perry and Chief Brandon Webb for their collaboration on this project. The idea for the study was conceived by EBP. The experiment was designed by EBP and KMK. The experiments were performed by EBP and DRD. The data were analyzed by EBP, DRD, EJK, and SYL. The paper was written by EBP, DRD, EJK, KMK, and SYL. Support for this project was provided by Southern Illinois University, College of Agricultural Sciences and Royal Canin. Additionally, SYL received support through the Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital and the Washington University Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences which is, in part, supported by the NIH/National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program (UL1TR002345). The findings and conclusions in this manuscript represent the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security or the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Authors declare that all animal procedures were carried out in compliance with Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee guidelines and in accordance with regulations established by the United States Department of Agriculture. The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2021/5/1
Y1 - 2021/5/1
N2 - Working canines have the potential to be exposed to hazardous materials during search and rescue deployments. Unfortunately, little data are available regarding likely areas of contamination on working canines or effective techniques for substance removal. We describe recent work using an oil-based UV fluorescent marker pooled to mimic standing liquid hazards in a simulated disaster scene to characterize anatomical locations likely to be contaminated. This study utilized three simulated “contaminated” environments situated across a disaster training complex. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) working canines (n = 11) searched the simulated disaster scene and traversed each contaminated environment. Following the search, all canines were kenneled for 30 minutes and then photographed to capture anatomic locations of exposure. The canines were then taken immediately to the decontamination station where handlers’ attempts at canine decontamination were recorded. Anatomical locations were coded as ventral or dorsal, and then further subdivided to the neck, chest, lower legs, and paws for ventral exposures; and back, head, face, and hips for dorsal exposures. Contamination occurred consistently on the paws and lower legs with overall ventral exposure occurring in 39 of 44 (89%) observations. Contamination of the back and head was infrequent, with overall dorsal exposure occurring in 11 of 44 (25%) observations. Despite handler awareness of the exact anatomical locations of exposure with a greater frequency of exposure involving ventral (78%) versus dorsal (22%) regions of the canine (P < 0.0001), time spent decontaminating the two regions did not differ (P = 0.881). These data indicate a need for additional research to identify effective decontamination techniques. Furthermore, the results suggest that additional training may be needed to educate handlers and veterinary personnel regarding anatomic locations on working canines likely to be contaminated during disaster operations in environments where standing liquid hazards are present.
AB - Working canines have the potential to be exposed to hazardous materials during search and rescue deployments. Unfortunately, little data are available regarding likely areas of contamination on working canines or effective techniques for substance removal. We describe recent work using an oil-based UV fluorescent marker pooled to mimic standing liquid hazards in a simulated disaster scene to characterize anatomical locations likely to be contaminated. This study utilized three simulated “contaminated” environments situated across a disaster training complex. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) working canines (n = 11) searched the simulated disaster scene and traversed each contaminated environment. Following the search, all canines were kenneled for 30 minutes and then photographed to capture anatomic locations of exposure. The canines were then taken immediately to the decontamination station where handlers’ attempts at canine decontamination were recorded. Anatomical locations were coded as ventral or dorsal, and then further subdivided to the neck, chest, lower legs, and paws for ventral exposures; and back, head, face, and hips for dorsal exposures. Contamination occurred consistently on the paws and lower legs with overall ventral exposure occurring in 39 of 44 (89%) observations. Contamination of the back and head was infrequent, with overall dorsal exposure occurring in 11 of 44 (25%) observations. Despite handler awareness of the exact anatomical locations of exposure with a greater frequency of exposure involving ventral (78%) versus dorsal (22%) regions of the canine (P < 0.0001), time spent decontaminating the two regions did not differ (P = 0.881). These data indicate a need for additional research to identify effective decontamination techniques. Furthermore, the results suggest that additional training may be needed to educate handlers and veterinary personnel regarding anatomic locations on working canines likely to be contaminated during disaster operations in environments where standing liquid hazards are present.
KW - Canine exposure
KW - Decontamination
KW - Working canine
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105285972&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jveb.2021.01.004
DO - 10.1016/j.jveb.2021.01.004
M3 - Article
C2 - 34177395
AN - SCOPUS:85105285972
SN - 1558-7878
VL - 43
SP - 1
EP - 6
JO - Journal of Veterinary Behavior
JF - Journal of Veterinary Behavior
ER -