Of mice and mines: trained rats search for explosives, tuberculosis

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 19:10:02 +0930

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070912-of-mice-and-mines-trained-rats-search-for-explosives-tuberculosis.html>

"According to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, an estimated
15-20,000 people are killed by landmines each year. Detecting those
mines—without setting them off—is a dilemma that faces many post-conflict
regions of the world. But Bart Weetjens may have found a six-pound solution to
the problem: the African giant pouched rat. Working for APOPO, a Belgian
organization founded to explore the idea, Weetjens has successfully trained
rats to locate land mines by smell. The animals have also been trained to
identify tuberculosis from samples, a development that may prove equally
promising."

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               *** Xanni ***

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