New Best Friend of Mankind?TANZANIA: "Mankind"s New Best Friend ?" Boston Globe (11.23.08)::Colin Nickerson African giant pouched rats are using their sharp olfactory senses to help to fight TB in Tanzania. Trained by the Belgium-based nonprofit Apopo International, teams of 25 rats are serving a pilot project to detect TB in saliva samples at four clinics in the slums of Dar es Salaam and nearby Morogoro. Already, the rats have identified 300 cases of early TB missed by lab technicians armed with microscopes. Without the rodents"s help, those patients could have gotten ill, spread the disease and died. "It is fair, I think, to call these animals "hero rats"" said Bart Weetjens, who conceived of the program. "They are organized, sensitive, sociable and smart," he noted. The rats do not form deep bonds with a single handler, but happily work with anyone who gives the correct commands and reward, usually a few peanuts or ripe banana. The rats in the pilot study can assess about 40 saliva samples every 10 minutes, about what a skilled lab technician can evaluate under a microscope in one day"s work. The rats are trained with a clicking device. When the rat senses a sample has TB, it makes a scratching motion and the handler responds by snapping the clicker, which means a treat is on its way. Asked whether the rats would short-circuit the process and scratch every few minutes to get their fill of treats, Weetjens replied, "That would be human behavior. Rats are more honest." Apopo also trains rat squads to take part in land mine eradication efforts in Africa - work that has won high praise from the World Bank and the UN. Posted by : chpantip , E-mail : (chpantip@medicine.psu.ac.th) , Date : 2008-12-24 , Time : 10:14:06 , From IP : 172.29.3.68 |
