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HeroRATs: Sniffing Out Landmines and Tuberculosis

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HeroRATs: Sniffing Out Landmines and Tuberculosis

heroRAT

Rats are highly intelligent and social creatures, with an extremely developed sense of smell. They are adapted to the environment and love to perform repetitive search tasks in exchange for a food reward. In Tanzania, APOPO trains African giant pouched rats to save human lives in sub-Sahara Africa, by detecting landmines and Tuberculosis. They are affectionately called- HeroRATS.

HeroRATs: Sniffing Out Landmines and Tuberculosis

34 HeroRAT teams are currently deployed in Mozambique. They are accredited according International Mine Action Standards (IMAS), just like mine detection dogs. HeroRATS are cheaper to breed, to feed, to train, to maintain and to transport. They are lightweight, and therefore do not set off landmines by stepping on them. The use of HeroRATS speeds up humanitarian landmine clearance and reduces operational costs.

HeroRATs: Sniffing Out Landmines and Tuberculosis

APOPO started to train HeroRATS to detect pulmonary Tuberculosis, as a spin-off application. In Tanzania, only 47% of active TB cases are detected (2004). There is an urgent need for a fast and cheap, first line screening tool, to detect suspected TB cases early. Today, Tuberculosis kills more youth and adults than any other single infectious disease in the world today. Yearly, more then 2 million people die worldwide from Tuberculosis. The WHO prospects a 400% increase in Tuberculosis by 2015.

HeroRATs: Sniffing Out Landmines and Tuberculosis

HeroRats detect the smell of the TB-bacilli in sputum samples. They discriminate positive samples by keeping their nose fixed in a sniffing hole above the sample. They are rewarded with mashed banana and peanuts. At this stage, TB detection rats are in a research phase. Proof of principle has been provided, and the tool is now in optimization for operational use.

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Funded

Thanks to 4,672 donors like you, a total of $248,903 was raised for this project on GlobalGiving. Combined with other sources of funding, this project raised enough money to fund the outlined activities and is no longer accepting donations.

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