Anti-piracy canines Lucky and Flo have done it again, sniffing out a cache of more than 50,000 illegal DVDs in Malaysia in their third bust to date, said industry officials.

The black Labradors helped enforcement officers seize the pirated copies of movies in a raid late Monday in a suburb in Petaling Jaya, a satellite town west of Kuala Lumpur, they said.

The latest raid comes hot on the heels of a seizure on Sunday in the same suburb, where the two dogs led officers to a hidden room stocked with fake DVDs and CDs worth US$435,000.

"It was two nights on the trot," said Neil Gane, from the Motion Picture Association (MPA), which brought the dogs to Malaysia.

"The authorities looked into two retail stores ... and patrolled the rear and found two hidden compartments. They seized in excess of 50,000 DVDs. Five men were subsequently arrested," Gane told AFP, describing Monday's raid.

The dogs, which hail from Northern Ireland, are said to be the only ones in the world trained to detect polycarbonate and chemicals used in optical discs.

They were brought to Malaysia last month for a one-month trial by the MPA, which investigates piracy for major motion picture companies.

The labradors made their first bust on March 19, when they travelled south to Johor state and helped officials to find pirated discs worth millions of dollars in an office complex.

Contracts out

Following their success, Malaysian authorities said that piracy syndicates were trying to kill the dogs and had put a bounty on their heads.

Gane said security remained tight on the Lucky and Flo, and that "both the Malaysian government and the MPA took the threats seriously."

He said the pair may extend their stay in Malaysia beyond the initial one-month trial given their success, while a regional tour may be in the making.

"We're still in discussions with other governments in the Asia-Pacific region and we may deploy them in other countries," Gane said.

The MPA is also in discussion with Malaysia's Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry to develop a similar canine unit, he said.