Sunday, November 23, 2008
Rats prove their worth
Despite a very bad reputation, rats are showing their value in the areas of mine detection and TB testing. And it all comes from their sense of smell.
In Mozambique, special squads of raccoon-size rats are sniffing out lethal explosive devices buried across the countryside, remnants of the country's anticolonial and civil wars of the last century.With so many now or soon to be looking for work, perhaps we could send all those Bush sized rats from DC to Mozambique to eliminate the mines once they are found. Kill two birds with one stone, as it were. But according to their trainers there might be a problem with that.
In neighboring Tanzania, teams of rats use their twitchy noses to detect TB bacteria in saliva samples from four clinics serving slum neighborhoods. So far this year, the 25 rats trained for the pilot medical project have identified 300 cases of early-stage TB - infections missed by lab technicians with their microscopes. If not for the rodents, many of these victims would have died and others would have spread the disease.
For both TB and land mines, the rats are trained to respond to the sound of a clicker; when the rat makes the scratching motion that means it has detected an explosive or the odor of disease, the handler or trainer responds by snapping the clicker, which means a nut or fruit is on the way.
So why don't the animals just scratch every few minutes to win a treat?
"That would be human behavior," said Weetjens. "Rats are more honest."
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