When we think of sniffing out landmines and tuberculosis, we immediately think dogs. Well, Apopo is changing the norm of life saving animals! Apopo trains rats to sniff out landmines and tuberculosis and they're results will amaze you. The second I heard about their amazing business, I had to speak with them! Petopolis had an exclusive chance to ask them about their interesting life savers.
Apopo began in 1995 by Bart Weetjens, what gave him the idea to use rats for scent orientated tasks, instead of a more common animal, such as a dog?
Bart kept pet rats as a child and got to know the little animals as intelligent, trainable and with a very accurate sense of smell (he even took them with him to school, hiding them in his sweater!). Years later, during his studies he was analyzing the landmine problem in Sub Saharan Africa and it struck him how expensive and dangerous the process of landmine clearance is. When he came across an article about gerbils detecting explosives in airports, relying on their strong sense of smell, he remembered his own pet rats, put two and two together and got the idea to start training rats as a cheaper, more efficient and readily available means to detect landmines in war-torn countries. He consulted with Professor Ron Verhagen, a rodent expert at the University of Antwerp, who recommended the giant African pouched rat (Cricetomys gambianus) because of its long lifespan and adaptation to the conditions in Africa. As mentioned, the species is known for its very sensitive sense of smell and they can be trained to detect TNT, the explosive mostly used in landmines (and the more training they get, the better/more sensitive to certain target smells they become). They aren’t heavy enough to trigger landmines, but quite sizeable and easy to handle and they are inexpensive to house and feed. They also aren’t picky about whom they work with as they don’t really bond with their trainers. They work well with everyone so we can easily send them to our different operational sites.
So far, what are the rats detecting?
We currently have two applications with our scent detection technology – we have trained rats to detect landmines or tuberculosis. We use a training methodology called ‘operant conditioning’, based on clickr training. Both the mine detection rats and the TB detection rats are trained on a specific target scent: TNT for the landmines and TB bacteria in human sputum samples for the tuberculosis detection. We train the rats to associate the target scent with a click sound and food reward.
So far our mine action teams have helped clear 24 million square meters of land, whereby over 58,000 landmines and other unexploded ordnances and our TB detection rats have helped screen over 317,000 sputum samples, thereby finding over 8,500 TB patients that were initially missed by conventional diagnostic methods like microscopy.
Where are the landmine rats sent once they are done training?
At the moment we have landmine clearance projects with the rats in Mozambique, Angola and Cambodia. In Cambodia the rats are still undergoing in-country training, in preparation of their final external accreditation test. Once they pass the test, the rats and their handlers get a license to be working in the actual minefields. We hope they will be operational by the end of the year.
Are there any plans for using the rats to detect anything else in the future?
In theory, you could develop a whole range of potential scent-detection applications in different sectors. For example; medical (cancer, diabetes), environmental (pipeline corrosion, wood mold, microbial growth in buildings), contaminated food/water (salmonella, legionella, fungus), forensics (blood, gunshot residue), customs (tobacco, narcotics, explosives), and agricultural (termites, screwworms, weevils). APOPO might explore some of these applications in the future if it looks like the rats would be a low cost, low tech solution and if there’s funding available. At the moment we haven’t started researching any of these options but if there would be sufficient funding we’d definitely be interested in developing other scent detection applications with the rats.
How long does it take to train a new rat to detect a landmine?
It takes about 9 months to fully train a landmine detection rat – from socialization till final accreditation test. Every rat is a bit different of course and we have rats that are a bit faster than others but even when they learn very fast we usually keep them in a training schedule to make sure they are fully matured before being send to the actual minefields.
How long does it take to train a new rat to detect Tuberculosis?
The training of the TB detection rats takes usually a bit less time compared to the mine detection rats- about 7-8 months. The setting is a bit different for the TB detection rats (inside) and they don’t have to get used to walking on a leash for example.
How many trained and working rats do you have in your combined programs so far?
We currently have more than 200 rats in different stages of training and at our different operations! We have 39 mine detection rats working in Angola, 43 in Mozambique and 15 are undergoing in-country training in Cambodia in preparation of their final accreditation test by the Cambodian authorities. Our TB center in Maputo works with 9 TB detection rats and in Tanzania we have 36 rats sniffing out TB. We have 70 rats in different stages of training to become mine detection rats and 30 rats in our breeding center. Apart from that, we have some new-born pups that will be dedicated research rats, helping us to better understand their olfactory system and how we can train them to use that system in helping people.
What happens to the rats once they are done working with Apopo?
We have been operating in TB and demining for long enough now that some of our rats have reached retirement age, which is typically between 7 and 8 years. We allow them to work as long as they are performing well, still feel like working and pass weekly health checks. We notice that the rats are generally enthusiastic to get to work but when they are growing old, some simply aren’t motivated anymore. If that happens, when a rat’s performance has declined or it is not healthy enough to continue working, the rat is retired to its home cage. When they are retired to their cages, they receive a healthy diet, are regularly taken out to play and exercise, and continue to receive weekly health checks. If a rat is clearly suffering in its old age or from an untreatable disease, it is humanely euthanized.
How has the world reacted to the amazing abilities of your rats, since most people don’t know just how smart a rat really is?
Overall, surprised, intrigued and amazed :)! But we still face some skepticism towards our rats and the work they do. Although we have been operating in TB detection and demining for long enough to have proven impact in both areas it isn’t always easy to have people look beyond that first reaction of ‘you’re doing what with rats!!??’ Rats are usually not considered as a detection technology that can save lives but they are rather thought of as pests, dirty animals. Our results so far have proven otherwise - they are actually very intelligent animals, and they provide an innovative solution for some humanitarian problems but it will always be a bit challenging to alter that first reaction of many people.
What does the future look like for Apopo?
As for the mine action, we’re excited about the imminent announcement of a mine free Mozambique, the deployment of our HeroRATs in South-East Asia and the clearance of additional mine-affected provinces in Angola. We’re very happy to have been supporting the Mozambican government with mine clearance and we’re proud to announce that the country will declare itself mine-free very soon! Mozambique used to be one of the most mine-contaminated countries in the world but we're now in the final stages of freeing the country of the terror of landmines and giving the people of Mozambique their land and lives back. The mine detection rats and their human colleagues have been clearing over 11 million square meters of land, thereby finding and safely destroying over 14,500 landmines and other unexploded ordnances. As mentioned before, the mine detection rats in Cambodia are still in training to get licensed but everything is going well so we’re looking forward deploying them in the minefields in support of the demining teams. In Angola we recently moved to a new province where the rats are doing a great job speeding up the clearance work. Our head of mine action, fundraising manager and local offices in Geneva and the US are also constantly looking into possible partnerships and ways of funding so we can expand to other countries and help governments freeing the country of mines/UXO but this is a very time-consuming process.
As for the TB detection work, there are some very important studies underway, helping us to prove that the detection rat technology has added value compared to existing diagnostics, with regards to accuracy, cost-effectiveness, ease of use, and better clinical outcomes for patients. We’re also looking into ways to expand to other countries but main issue there is finding the necessary funding.
A super big thank you to Apopo for their time and all the lives they are changing every day!
For more information about Apopo you can check out their website
here, or follow them on social media:
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and
Pinterest
xoxo Petopolis
Don't forget to like us on
Facebook, and follow us on
Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, YummyPets, and
Catastic (@petopolis)!
