Rats as TB detectors remain a hard sell

摘要

What do land mines and tuberculosis have in common? Both kill people in developing countries - and both can be sniffed out by rodents that grow up to 3 feet, head to tail. Since 2000, the international nonprofit APOPO has partnered with Tanzania's Sokoine University of Agriculture to train African giant pouched rats (Cricetomys ansorgei) to pick up the scent of TNT in land mines. By 2016, the animals had located almost 20,000 land mines in Africa and Southeast Asia.