COLLEGE STATION, TX — New research at Texas A&M will allow contraband detection without the need to open up containers for inspection.
Through a partnership between the Cross-Border Threat Screening and Supply Chain Defense, Texas A&M Center of Excellence, and the Conservation Canines Program at the University of Washington a new low cost and time-consuming method of K9 contraband detection was developed to find illegal contraband in shipping containers without breaking customs seals.
This new method takes air-ventilated out from the shipping containers and allows the dog to sniff an air pad and detect if anything illegal is being stored inside the container.
"We are confident that the dogs can do their job and now it’s a matter of trying to really tune in with the equipment because if you think about a container which is basically the size of a truck trailer you want to make sure an ability to get a good sample of that air and that what this machinery is now being developed to do,” Grep Pompelli, the Director of Cross-Border Threat Screening and Supply Chain Analysis Center at Texas A&M Agrilife.
This new method of combining dogs with technology has been tested to detect contraband on multiple items.