The highly developed sense of smell and light weight of our African giant pouched rats, nicknamed ‘HeroRATs’, make them ideal detectors of landmines and tuberculosis.
HeroRATs detecting landmines
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HeroRATs detecting tuberculosis
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HeroRATs in research & development
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HeroRATs sniff out the chemical compounds of TNT (explosive) found in landmines and other explosive remnants of war. They ignore scrap metal making them much faster at detecting landmines than metal detectors.
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The APOPO tuberculosis detection rats check TB samples collected from local clinics. Any they indicate as suspect are reconfirmed by WHO endorsed methods. Our research program indiactes that the rats can increase detection rate of partner clinics by 40%.
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Marcous is a bundle of energy and an elite mine detection rat based in Siem Reap, Cambodia. A real character with a steely determination, Marcous sniffs out explosives ninety six times faster than conventional solutions.
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Chewa is a male Tuberculosis Detection Rat based in Dar Es Salaam, a mega-city in Tanzania. Chewa can search for TB in sputum samples 96 times faster than a lab technician. Adopt Chewa and help us to stop TB.
Adopt Chewa
Shuri is a staff favorite with a cheeky personality who brings a smile to the face of everyone she meets. Just a youngster, she has recently graduated from APOPO mine detection training with flying colors.
Adopt Ikemba
Six year old Claudi was very sick. His local clinic didn't know why. Read how APOPO identified his TB.
Claudi's storyTry looking for answers on our FAQ page, or send us an email from the contacts page. If you are a journalist you can contact the press team on the press page.
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