Hero Rats

Detecting landmins and Tubercolosis in Tanzania

In Morogoro, Tanzania, a city of about 500.000 inhabitants 6 hours far away from the capital Dar es Salaam, a revolutionary method of scientific experimentation is applied that allows a great advance in the field of medicine and the safety for people who have survived wars and conflicts. It has indeed been found that incredible results can be achieved through training of African Giant Rats for humanitarian missions, in particular for the detection of tuberculosis and antipersonnel mines.

Around 60 countries are still contaminated with hidden landmines and other explosive remnants of war, that cause tragic accidents and hamper communities from developing their productive land. In 2019 landmines and explosive remnants of war caused at least 5,554 casualties, of which 80% were civilians and 43% children.
Meanwhile, slow and inaccurate detection methods make tuberculosis the world’s most deadly infectious disease. Tuberculosis is now the biggest global killer from an infectious disease. There are approximately 10 million new global cases of tuberculosis per year and around 1.4 million people die from the disease. In most sub-Saharan African countries only about half of the patients with active tuberculosis are diagnosed.

APOPO's scent detection animals, nicknamed ‘HeroRATs’, are giving an extraordinary help to rid the world of landmines and tuberculosis. Through clicker/reward training, the mine detection rats (MDR) are taught to scratch the earth above a landmine. They hear a 'click' and receive a snack. Unlike metal detectors, the rats ignore scrap metal and only sniff out explosive scent making them fast and efficent landmine detectors. APOPO researches detection rats as a “failsafe” - examining clinic tested human sputum samples delivered from partner clinics in Tanzania, Mozambique and Ethiopia. Any rat-suspect samples are rechecked using WHO endorsed methods and if TB is confirmed, APOPO notifies the clinic. This method improves clinic detection rates by up to 40%.

At the end of the training the best Rats that detect mines are sent to conflict zones on real minefields or coutries like Cambodia where part of the territory is still mined. A country where they have contributed for years to the demining of the territory and to save lives. APOPO'S "Hero Rats" of Tanzania are definitely the protagonists of an innovative scientific method that does not require expensive infrastructures using cost-efficient solutions that integrate detection animals with extraordinary abilities into traditional methods.