Finland’s sniffer dogs prevent millions in pest damage and disease outbreaks

Specialized detection dogs at Finland’s borders are saving the country from costly pest invasions and animal diseases, public broadcaster Yle reports.

At Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, a trained customs dog named Rico—a six-year-old Labrador retriever—has intercepted over 9,000 kilograms of prohibited meat and dairy products since beginning work. These items, banned from entry into the EU, can carry devastating animal diseases like African swine fever, which has already spread to neighboring Sweden, Estonia, and Russia.

“We’re pioneers in this field,” said Kimmo Lindén, Rico’s handler and a customs inspector. “Food detection dogs are rare globally, but Finland has proven the concept works.” Rico’s work focuses on preventing African swine fever, a highly contagious viral disease fatal to pigs and wild boar. The virus can survive in meat even after cooking, and a single contaminated sausage could trigger an outbreak if fed to pigs.

The financial stakes are high. Sweden spent roughly €10 million containing a 2023 outbreak, while Germany’s Saxony region incurred costs of about €60 million to eradicate the disease. Finland remains one of the last Nordic strongholds still free of African swine fever.

Rico’s extraordinary sense of smell—thousands of times more sensitive than human technology—allows him to detect raw meat, cheese, fat, and milk even through sealed industrial packaging. “Sometimes it’s hard to believe how precise he is,” Lindén admitted. To avoid false positives from ambient food smells in airports, Rico works in a tightly controlled section of the baggage claim, inspecting only incoming luggage.

Trained from puppyhood, Rico treats his job like a game, rewarded with playtime rather than food. “At home, he’s just a family pet,” Lindén said. “We don’t think about work there.” Now nearing retirement due to health issues, Rico’s successor is Noogie, a Labrador puppy already in training with the Lindén family.

Meanwhile, in Vantaa, another pair of detection dogs—Jippo and Osku—specialize in identifying invasive pests for the family-run company Putkikoira Oy. Their targets include the Asian longhorned beetle, a tree-destroying insect that could devastate Finnish forests. Handler Esa Puolakka described their work as critical to early intervention, before infestations spiral into ecological and economic disasters.

Finland’s use of scent-detection dogs extends beyond drugs or explosives, forming a quiet but vital defense against biological threats that could otherwise cost the country millions.