Скачать или смотреть Rats trained to sniff out tuberculosis in Africa

(22 Jan 2023)
WORLD LAB RATS

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

LENGTH: 5:28

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania - 20 November 2022
1. Various of rats in a lab
2. Various of scientists working with rats in a lab
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Joseph Soka, programme manager for TB at APOPO:
"The sensitivity of these rats is as high as compared to microscopes and as compared to other tests, their sensitivity is independent of HIV status. That is, they can easily identify tuberculosis in people living with HIV, keeping in mind that these people living with HIV, it is very difficult to be diagnosed by the standard test, including Genexpert in microscopes.”

4. Various of scientists working with rats in a lab
5. Various of rats in a lab
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Joseph Soka, programme manager for TB at APOPO
"We did accuracy studies way back and we found that the accuracy of these rats as compared to culture (tests), was 75 percent. We are planning to do a better accuracy study, because the initial study had some shortfalls. We will do another accuracy study and we hope the sensitivity of these rats can reach 90 percent."

7. Wide of scientists working with rats in a lab
8. Close of rat in a lab
9. Various of scientists working with rats in a lab

ASSOCIATED PRESS
13 January 2023, Nairobi Kenya

10. Various of scientists in a lab
11. Dhaval Shah, veterinary pathologist at Pathologists Lancet Kenya walking
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Dhaval Shah, veterinary pathologist at Pathologists Lancet Kenya:
"Rats are mammals just like us humans but the difference between us and rats is that we have less scent receptors. These are special cells within the lining of our nasal passages which pick up on scents. Rats tend to have 50 percent of the lining covered by scent receptors while humans only have about five percent of the lining covered with scent receptors. So that means they have a higher ability, and a higher number of scent receptors which pick up on different scents around the environment."

13. Various of Shah in a lab
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Dhaval Shah, veterinary pathologist at Pathologists Lancet Kenya:
"So, the conventional laboratory techniques can take anywhere from two hours to even 14 days per sample, depending on what technique you use, while the rats will be able to complete testing of fifty samples within two hours and this would be ideal in far places or remote places like Mozambique or places in Mozambique which are rural."

15. Various of scientists working with rats in a lab
16. Close of signage reading "TB DETECTION LABS LABORATORY"
17. Scientist putting rat back to its cage
18. Close of rat in a cage

LEADIN:

In laboratories in Tanzania and Nairobi, rats have been trained to sniff out tuberculosis.

Already known for finding land mines, the rodents could now transform the way the disease is detected.

STORYLINE:

These African giant pouched rats (cricetomys gambianus) have hero status with the scientists at the APOPO Project, a Belgian non-profit organization in Tanzania, thanks to their ability to sniff out tuberculosis.

APOPO is known for training rats to find landmines, but training them to detect TB was new territory when they began using the programme back in 2008.

Now the animals work in 21 medical centres in Tanzania’s capital Dar es Salaam.

According to Joseph Soka, a programme manager for TB at APOPO, the ability of the rats to detect pathogens is high due to their impressive sensitivity to smell.



For WHO approval, a 90 percent accuracy rate is required.















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