A rat school with a difference

The heart of APOPO lies in Morogoro, Tanzania. APOPO is hosted by Sokoine University of Agriculture, where APOPO has established its main administrative, training and research centre at the foot of the Uluguru Mountains.

A few kilometres outside the University's main campus, APOPO has established 24 hectares of training and test fields for the training of Mine Detection Rats. Through the support of the Tanzanian Peoples Defence Force, more than 1,500 landmines and unexploded ordinance, among other control objects, are buried in the training fields. The field is a mosaic of more than 1,000 demarcated training boxes (typically 100 square meters each).

In the vicinity of the minefield, at the University's isolation area, APOPO houses its tuberculosis research and training facility. Here the rats are trained on the detection of tuberculosis, and research is conducted toward the optimization of the detection system. Sample quality confirmation is done in the microscope laboratory.

At the central APOPO facilities at the SUA main Campus, the rats start their lives in APOPO's breeding kennels. The indoor facilities can house 55 breeding pairs in double-chambered breeding cages. APOPO also has more than 400 square meters of outdoor, concrete breeding kennels, where the rats' natural environment is imitated with about half a meter of soil, through which they can dig their tunnels and breeding nests.

After socialization, the young rats begin their training in one of the six pre-training rooms, with small training cages, where the animals learn odour discrimination. At a later stage they are brought either to the training field or to one of the advanced training and odour evaluation cages. APOPO has four training rooms with different configurations, where the rats can evaluate hundreds of odour samples on a daily basis.

Quality control of the samples and training environment is performed in the APOPO analytical chemistry laboratory, equipped with Gas Chromatography and Ion Mobility Spectrometry equipment.

Field-trained rats and those used for Remote Explosive Scent Tracing are housed in two separate indoor kennels and are given regular exercise using the outside playing kennels. Weekly visits by a veterinarian ensure the rats maintain their good health.

Administrative and financial management of APOPO, as well as the support for the operational projects is also centralized in Morogoro.