Can you imagine a rat sniffing out a disease? The African giant pouched rat can! Scientists trained these rats to identify if a person has tuberculosis (TB). TB is a bacterial disease that most commonly affects the lungs. It spreads easily and can be dangerous if untreated. When rats smell samples of mucus a person coughs up, they can smell if it has TB bacteria. We wanted to know if rats are better at identifying cases of TB compared to a standard microscope test. We also wanted to know if rats can better identify TB in children than in adults. We found that rats can identify TB in samples that the microscope test said were negative. We also learned that the rats are more likely to identify TB in children – even when they have low levels of bacteria. Using rats can help more people receive treatment for TB and reduce the spread.
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