Ministry for Primary Industries keen on 'giant biosecurity detector dogs'

New harrier hound puppies will potentially allow the Ministry for Primary Industries to breed giant biosecurity detector dogs. Photo / Supplied by Ministry of Primary Industries

Upsized detector dogs might be bred from new puppies acquired by the Ministry for Primary Industries to guard against diseases from crossing New Zealand's borders.

MPI has six harrier hound puppies that will be trained up to sniff out fruit, vegetables, meat and plants in travellers' bags at the airport.

Collectively known as "N-litter", the hounds will bring genetic diversity and height to MPI's usual hoard of beagle detector dogs.

And MPI is looking to breed the harriers with the beagles to make "giant biosecurity detector dogs".

Detection technology manager Brett Hickman said it was an exciting time.

"We're excited about the prospect...we want to cross the harriers with beagles that have already established themselves as detector dog stars.

"That will increase the genetic diversity of our detector dogs, and will see the introduction of taller dogs in future generations under our breeding programme," Mr Hickman said.

Beagles are proven detector dogs but MPI also has one harrier hound working as a biosecurity dog, and another in training.