ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Behavior and Welfare
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1649673
This article is part of the Research TopicOccupational Health of Working DogsView all 3 articles
Canine decontamination, a laboratory study evaluating proper techniques to remove toxic materials from working dogs
Provisionally accepted
- 1TDA Research Inc, Wheat Ridge, United States
- 2Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, United States
- 3Mantel Technologies, Inc., Fort Collins, CO, United States
- 4Midwestern University, Glendale, United States
- 5Colorado State University, Fort Collins, United States
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Working dogs can inadvertently encounter toxic chemicals while performing their key activities. These can include toxic industrial chemicals and materials (TICs/TIMs), pharmaceuticals, illicit drugs, sewage, pesticides, and even highly toxic chemical warfare agents. All these materials can poison the canine, be spread by touch, and can be transferred to the handler, vehicle, or veterinary medical staff. A successful decontamination technique must be safe for the handler to perform, can be performed at the site of contamination, successfully removes the hazardous material before it poisons the canine or transfers to other surfaces, and does not lead to a large hazardous waste disposal event. Materials: Canine cadaver tissue samples (intact skin/fur) were used to conduct a decontamination comparison between dry, waterless, wipe decontamination and traditional soap and water wash decontamination. The chemical warfare agents sulfur mustard (HD) and venomous agent X (VX) were used for all testing. Results: The dry, waterless, wipe decontamination removed more chemical toxin (HD and VX) from canine fur, preventing transfer to the skin. The soap and water wash decontamination provided a route of transfer for toxins to reach the canine skin. Discussion: To successfully decontaminate a working dog after toxic chemical exposure to HD and VX, dry, waterless, wipe decontamination should be performed to remove the majority of the toxin. This procedure reduces the transfer hazard to the handler, vehicle and veterinary medical staff which can then perform further decontamination and medical intervention.
Keywords: canine, Military Working Dog, multi-purpose canine, Chemical warfare agent, Decontamination, Sulfur Mustard, venomous agent X
Received: 18 Jun 2025; Accepted: 08 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 France, Malloy, Buntz and Mann. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Brian France, TDA Research Inc, Wheat Ridge, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.