Giant ‘sniffer rats’ trained to spot disease
Scots scientists are helping to train giant sniffer rats to detect a devastating disease that is being passed from animals to humans in the world’s poorest countries.
Brucellosis causes infertility and low milk yields in livestock andispassedfromcows,sheep, goats and pigs to the men and women who farm them with human carriers experiencingflu-likesymptomsaswellas bone joint and heart problems and and, in rare cases, death.
Hard and expensive to detect, Brucellosis is facing a new weapon being deployed in its wipe out – the African giant pouched rat.
Measuring up to 4ft long, the ratshavebeenshowntobeable recruitsinthefightagainstboth tuberculosis and landmines, with the rodents able to sniff out properties of both.
Now Glasgow University is pioneering the use of the mammal to sniff out livestock carrying brucellosis with nine rats - named Hawking, Skinner, Sloth, Stewart, Zhang, Angela, Aung, Jane, and Pipp – being trained in a lab in Tanzania to detect the bacteria.
Professordanhaydon,director of the Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine at the University of Glasgow, said: “
We figured if they can smell landmines and smell TB then surely we can get them to smell brucellosis? And the long and the short of it is that it turns out you can.”
The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of understanding how infectious diseases in animals can spread to humans.
Professor Haydon added: “Three-quarters of new or emerging infectious diseases in humans originates from animals, of which Covid-19 representsaparticularlydevastating example.”
Brucellosis is devastating given the loss of income when infected animals fail to reproduce or produce low amounts of milk. The World Health Organisation estimates human brucellosis costs
atleast264,073yearsintermsof disability or early death.
Professor Kazwal, of Sokoine University in Morogoro, Tanzania, who trained rats to sniff out TB, said the animals had an “incredible sense of
smell”. Over four to six months, theratsaretrainedtosniffspecimens. When it finds a positive sample, it hears a click and is rewarded with food.”