Training giant African pouched rats to sniff out mines, detect diseases, and find people under rubble

Giant African pouched rats in Tanzania are being trained to detect landmines, disease and even people buried under rubble.

A giant African pouched rat is rewarded after a successful search and rescue training mission in Morogoro, Tanzania, July 29. (Source: Africa News)

African giant pouched rats have an extremely keen sense of smell, making them incredibly useful in rescue missions.

For more than two decades, the Belgian non-profit organization APOPO has been working in Morogoro to train the species for important missions.

Rat trainer Sophia Madinda said she had to overcome her fear of rodents to carry out the training project.

She shared: "At first when I came to APOPO, honestly, I was very scared of them. But then, when I got used to them, I realized they were creatures that could live together well and could also be made friends with and work with."

Tanzania has one of the highest rates of tuberculosis in the world and false negative testing remains a persistent problem.

In 2007, APOPO expanded its program to train rats to detect tuberculosis and now works with hospitals in Tanzania, Ethiopia and Mozambique.

Although the rats are not recognized as an "official diagnostic tool", APOPO CEO Christophe Cox said they have detected more than 30,000 infections.

With their keen noses, African giant pouched rats sniff patient sputum samples, searching for tuberculosis-positive cases that falsely tested negative.

Mr. Christophe commented that 30,000 patients, if taking into account that each person can infect 10-15 others per year, would help prevent 300,000-400,000 secondary infections.

The study found that these mice detected six specific volatile organic compounds in tuberculosis-positive samples.

The big challenge for the "hero mice" comes from regulators and the medical community, who are skeptical of this unconventional method of disease detection.

Now, super rats are being trained for a new life-saving mission. They will help search and rescue teams find survivors after disasters like earthquakes.

Their small bodies make them invaluable, said Fabrizio Dell'Anna, who heads the search and rescue program.

"They are small so they can go through the rubble, which search and rescue dogs cannot do. They can only sniff from the surface of the rubble," he said.

The rats also carry a small device that allows operators outside the rubble to communicate with victims.

Rats are trained from a young age to perform specific tasks, and with an average lifespan of nearly 10 years, they can perform the job for many years.

However, the cost of training a mouse is quite high, about 7,000 USD.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/huan-luyen-chuot-tui-khong-lo-chau-phi-danh-hoi-min-phat-hien-benh-tat-tim-nguoi-duoi-dong-do-nat-326718.html