Photo/Illutration A Labrador Retriever is expected to become a disease-detection dog under Gunma Prefecture’s plan. (Provided by Gunma Prefecture)

MAEBASHI—Gunma Prefecture is pumping 124 million yen ($873,000) into a project to train dogs that can sniff out health problems, such as cancer, in humans.

The prefectural government plans to extend support to doctors and scientists who engage in such research for three years from fiscal 2023.

Although studies on cancer-detection dogs have been carried out around the world, the research has never been put into practical use.

Gunma intends to become the first to do so.

According to the prefectural government, sickness-detection canines, working like drug-sniffing dogs, can determine whether individuals are ill based on the smell of their exhaled air and urine.

The initiative in Gunma Prefecture is part of Governor Ichita Yamamoto’s endeavor to realize a “society to live better with pets.”

“We were told (by an expert panel set up by the prefecture) that creating an environment where detection dogs and other pets can fulfill their potential will help promote our symbiosis,” Yamamoto said.

The prefecture is soliciting research proposals from across the nation. Specifically, it wants one study on how dogs can detect cancer and another one on finding symptoms of COVID-19, Parkinson’s disease or other diseases.

A maximum of 30 million yen will be provided to each project. Buying and nurturing the dogs for the research will be covered by the budget allocation.

Applications will be accepted through July 14.

Researchers will study disease specimens provided by medical institutes. The prefecture expects to train two canines from the Labrador Retriever and other breeds known for their high concentration levels.

Research on such dogs has been carried out in Finland and Britain. In Japan, Kaneyama town in Yamagata Prefecture funded a similar program in fiscal 2017 and 2018.

Yamamoto last year visited Finland to observe a verification test at Helsinki Airport of sickness-sniffing hounds trying to identify those infected with the novel coronavirus.

“People and pets will be able to coexist in a far broader sense” with the detector program, Yamamoto said. “We will be making full use of dogs’ abilities for the sake of humankind.”

Asked how the local government can justify using such a huge sum, Yamamoto referred to the Tsulunos broadcasting studio within the prefectural office building and the public-private Netsugen communal working space for entrepreneurs.

“Those facilities were criticized at the time of their introduction, but they are currently operating at 100 percent capacity,” he said. “We must take a risk whenever we start something new.”

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