APOPO

APOPO (an acronym for Anti-Persoonsmijnen Ontmijnende Product Ontwikkeling: "Anti-Personnel Landmines Removal Product Development" in English) is a registered Belgian non-governmental organisation and US non-profit which trains southern giant pouched rats to detect landmines and tuberculosis. They call their trained rats 'HeroRATs'.

APOPO
Anti-Persoonsmijnen Ontmijnende Product Ontwikkeling
MottoWe Train Rats to Save Lives
Formation1997
TypeNon-governmental organization
PurposeTo develop detection rats technology to provide solutions for global problems and inspire positive social change.
HeadquartersMorogoro, Tanzania
Region
Africa, Asia, South America
FieldsMine action, tuberculosis, research and development, disaster relief
Websitewww.apopo.org

History

APOPO started as an R&D organization in Belgium in the 1990s, working with the support of research and government grants to develop the concept of Detection Rats Technology. As a pet owner, Bart Weetjens, one of the co-founders, came across an article about gerbils being used as scent detectors. He believed that rats, with their strong sense of smell and ability to be trained, could provide a better means to detect landmines. Bart's former university lecturer Mic Billet, the founder of the Institute for Product Development at Antwerp University fully supported the idea and made his personal resources available for further investigation and promotion of the new initiative. After consulting with Professor Ron Verhagen, rodent expert at the department of evolutionary biology of the University of Antwerp, the Gambian pouched rat was determined to be the best candidate due to its longevity and African origin. The APOPO project was launched on 1 November 1997 by Bart Weetjens and his former schoolmate Christophe Cox. Both Weetjens and Cox had previously collaborated in a not-for-profit organisation which had been headed by Billet, and together, they started building a kennel facility for the training and breeding of African Giant Pouched Rats. They contacted the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro, Tanzania, and placed an order for the import of Giant Rats.

In 2003 APOPO was awarded a grant from the World Bank, which provided seed funding to research another application of the rats: tuberculosis (TB) detection at SUA.[1] Bart Weetjens got a 3-year personal grant from Ashoka: Innovators for the Public in 2007.[2]

After the first 11 rats were given accreditation according to International Mine Action Standards in 2004, beginning in 2006 machinery for ground preparation, manual deminers and the rats assisted with detection in long-running mine clearance operations in Mozambique.[3]

In Angola APOPO has worked for Norwegian People's Aid since 2012. From 2013-2015 up to 31 rats assisted demining by heavy machinery and people with metal detectors at two sites, Ngola Luige in Malanje and in Malele in Zaire province, bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo.[3]

In early 2014 the national Cambodia Mine Action Centre (CMAC) started demining a site, with the help of Norwegian Peoples Aid, using conventional mine clearance methods.[3][4]

Detecting landmines

When the southern giant pouched rats (Cricetomys ansorgei) are flown in they must first be acclimatised to the specific country, and be accredited by the local national agency, which will take a number of months.[5]

Rats are only a component of integrated demining operations. Metal detectors and mechanical demining machines are also still necessary. Before the rats can be used, the land must first be prepared with special heavy machinery to cut the brush to ground level. Paths must also be cleared by conventional metal detectors at every 2m intervals for the handlers to walk on.[3][6]

The rats wear harnesses connected to a rope suspended between two handlers. Rats are led to search a demarcated zone of 10 x 20m (200 m2 [2,200 sq ft]) and indicate the scent of explosives usually by scratching at the ground. The points indicated by the rats are marked, and then followed up later by technicians using metal detectors; the mines which are found are then excavated by hand and destroyed.[6][7]

Advantages

Animals such as dogs or rats detect only explosives and ignore scrap metal such as old coins, nuts and bolts etc., thus they might be able to check areas of land faster than conventional methods.[8]

Criticisms and limitations

The value of using of giant pouched rats to clear significant amounts of mined areas is limited. Critics note that rats cannot search reliably in areas of thick vegetation and often search more erratically than humans, offering a lower level of assurance that the land is mine free. Additionally they can only work for short periods in the heat, limiting their output. Manual demining teams are still the globally preferred method of landmine clearance, and currently APOPO is the only organisation in the world to use giant rats.[5][6][7]

Detecting tuberculosis

Sputum samples that have already been conventionally tested are retested by the rats. The rats sniff a series of holes in a glass chamber, under which sputum samples are placed. When a rat detects TB, it indicates this by keeping its nose in the sample hole and/or scratching at the floor of the cage. The key advantage of the rats is speed. Public clinics use microscopy to detect TB; this is slow and imprecise. In Mozambique only 50% of TB positive patients tested at clinics are actually identified, so the rats are used to double check the samples.[9]

APOPO suggests it increased the detection of TB patients by over 40%.[10]

In 2015 to 2016 more than 2,500 prisoners were to be tested for TB in Mozambique and Tanzania.[11]

See also

Notes

    References
    1. "Training African Rats As A Cheap Diagnostic Tool". worldbank.org. Archived from the original on 7 June 2015. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
    2. "Ashoka Fellowship". Archived from the original on 21 November 2008. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
    3. "Efficiency and Effectiveness Study using MDR capability" (PDF). GICHD. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 September 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
    4. "CMAC website". cmac.gov.kh/. Archived from the original on 26 August 2016. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
    5. Poling, Alan; Weetjens, Bart J.; Cox, Christophe; Beyene, Negussie; Bach, Håvard; Sully, Andrew (2010). "Teaching Giant African Pouched Rats to Find Landmines: Operant Conditioning With Real Consequences". Behavior Analysis in Practice. 3 (2): 19–25. doi:10.1007/BF03391761. PMC 3004686. PMID 22532890.
    6. Smith, Andy. "Using animals as detectors". nolandmines.com. Humanitarian Mine Action. Archived from the original on 16 March 2019. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
    7. Beiser, Vince (1 March 2010). "Desperately Seeking Landmines". Pacific Standard. Washington, D.C.: SAGE Publishing. Archived from the original on 18 August 2018. Retrieved 16 August 2018.
    8. BACH, Håvard; PHELAN, James (2003). Appendix T : CANINE-ASSISTED DETECTION in HLD NEEDS - Alternatives for Landmine Detection (PDF). MBI Publishing Company. pp. 285–298. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 October 2016. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
    9. Cengel, Katya. "Giant Rats Trained to Sniff Out Tuberculosis in Africa". news.nationalgeographic.com. National Geographic. Archived from the original on 15 August 2016. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
    10. "Giant African Rats Successfully Detect Tuberculosis More Accurately Than Commonly Used Techniques". Newswise. 14 December 2011. Archived from the original on 18 December 2010. Retrieved 5 August 2011.
    11. Kizito, Makoye. "Giant rats to sniff out tuberculosis in Tanzania, Mozambique prisons". www.reuters.com. Archived from the original on 21 August 2016. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
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