APOPO

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File:Finding Landmine.JPG
HeroRAT in action

APOPO (an acronym for Anti-Persoonsmijnen Ontmijnende Product Ontwikkeling: "Anti-Personnel Landmines Removal Product Development" in English[1]) is a registered Belgian non-governmental organisation which trains African giant pouched rats[1] to detect landmines and tuberculosis. APOPO's mission is to develop detection rats technology to provide solutions for global problems and inspire positive social change.[2]

History

Bart Weetjens, the founder of APOPO, loved playing with his pet rats when he was a young boy. Years later, as a student at University of Antwerp, Bart applied the idea of using rodents for mine detection as an outcome of his analysis of the global mine detection problem.[3]

Due to his childhood experience, he knew that rats, with their strong sense of smell and trainability, could provide a cheaper, more efficient, and locally available means to detect landmines. Early research into this technology began in Belgium, with initial financial support from the Belgian Directorate for International Co-operation (DGIS) in 1997 to develop the concept.[3] In 2000, APOPO moved its headquarters to Morogoro, Tanzania, following partnerships with the Sokoine University of Agriculture and the Tanzanian People’s Defence Force. Now housed by the University, APOPO trains the rats – termed HeroRATs because of their life-saving capabilities – in near-to-real conditions.[4]

In 2003, APOPO began operations in Mozambique, with its first mine detection rats achieving official accreditation according to International Mine Action Standards in 2004. Fully integrated mine-clearance operations began in Mozambique in 2006.[3]

In 2003, APOPO won the World Bank Development Marketplace Global Competition, which provided seed funding to commence research into another application of detection rats technology: Tuberculosis (TB) detection.[5] In 2008, APOPO provided proof of principle for the utilization of trained rats in detecting pulmonary tuberculosis in human sputum samples. In 2010, APOPO launched a three-year research plan to closely examine the effectiveness of detection rats in diagnosing tuberculosis, in comparison to other diagnostic technologies, and to focus on future implementation models.[3]

Detecting landmines by scent

File:LandmineRat.JPG
A HeroRAT searches for a mine.

Advantages of African giant pouched rats

Deploying African giant pouched rats to detect landmines has several advantages over conventional methods such as using special machines or technicians with metal detectors.

Its main advantage is speed. Past studies have shown that less than 3% of landmine suspected land actually contains any landmines, leaving a high proportion of productive land to lie unused by local communities. Because the rats detect only explosives, and ignore scrap metal such as old coins, nuts and bolts etc. they are able to quickly check vast areas of land much faster than conventional methods, thus reducing landmine accidents and getting people back on their land as quickly as possible.

One rat can check 200m2 in around 20 minutes. This would take a technician with a metal detector up to 4 days.

The rats are indigenous to Sub-Saharan Africa, so are well-suited to the tropical climates in which they are deployed, and are resistant to many endemic diseases.[6] They are also widely available and inexpensive to procure. Few resources are needed to train and raise a rat to adulthood and they have a relatively long lifespan of six to eight years. Furthermore, rats do not form bonds with specific trainers but rather are motivated to work for food. This adaptability allows for the trained rats to be easily transferred between handlers.[6]

In the minefields, the rats are too light to detonate a pressure-activated mine when walking over it. Their small size also means that the rats can be easily transported to and from operational sites.[6]

Direct detection

Mine Detection Rats (MDR), the name given to the African giant pouched rats (Cricetomys ansorgei) favoured by APOPO, work to detect landmines by using their exceptional sense of smell.[6]

In order to ensure every inch of ground is properly checked, MDRs wear harnesses connected to a rope suspended between two handlers. Rats methodically search up and down a demarcated zone of 10 x 20 m (200m2) and indicate the scent of explosives by scratching at the ground. The insignificant weight of the rats means they do not detonate a landmine; their scratching solely indicates the presence of a mine. Each zone is screened by two animals.[7]

The points indicated by the rats are marked at the edge of the zone, and then followed up later by a technician with a metal detector, who excavates and then safely destroys the mines.[7]

The rats are able to search the ground more quickly (when compared to a manual deminer) and therefore rapidly confirm the presence or absence of mines. This process is termed, technical survey (TS); the gathering of evidence through use of mine detection rats. The TS process also allows a more precise definition of the minefield boundaries and can release or cancel land outside these boundaries that were initially thought to be contaminated. This TS process is a more cost effective method to release mined areas as opposed to conducting full clearance over the entire area. For APOPO operations the rats are a key part to this process.

Mozambique

APOPO is currently the sole operator for the demining of the Gaza Province in Mozambique. This will assist Mozambique in reaching their 2014 APMBC deadline. Operations in Mozambique began in 2003, with the first group of 11 mine detection rats passing official accreditation tests in 2004, and fully integrated mine clearance operations – including manual deminers, mine detection rats, and machinery for ground preparation – in 2006.[3]

Since the start of operations, APOPO’s Mozambique Mine Action team has returned over 6 million m2 of land to the population. Over 2,400 landmines have been found and destroyed.[8]

Thailand

In 2010, the Thailand Mine Action Center (TMAC) supported APOPO’s proposal to conduct a combined non-technical and technical survey of all mine suspected areas in the provinces of Trat and Chantaburi, along the Thai-Cambodian border.[3]

APOPO is conducting the project in partnership with local Thai NGO Peace Road Organization, with the goal of accurately determining how much of the suspected hazardous areas (SHAs) actually contain landmines.[9]

Detecting tuberculosis by scent

Tuberculosis is one of the deadliest diseases in the world, responsible for 9.6 million new illnesses and 1.5 million deaths each year, mainly in poor countries.[10] Rat detection technology is aiding DOTS programs to help diagnose vulnerable populations.[11]

APOPO trains detection rats to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis in human sputum samples. In APOPO’s laboratories in Tanzania and Mozambique, rats sniff a series of 10 holes in a line cage, under which human sputum samples are placed for evaluation. When a rat detects TB, it indicates by keeping its nose in the sample hole and scratching at the surface of the line cage.[12]

Advantages over microscopy

Currently, in most of the world, tuberculosis is detected through microscopy, a method that has not changed significantly in the last 100 years. Microscopy has limited sensitivity and is relatively slow: on average, a laboratory technician can process 40 samples per day, while a trained rat can evaluate the same number of samples in less than seven minutes.[12][13]

APOPO’s TB program has been operational in routine care in Tanzania since 2007 and in Mozambique since 2013. Since then, the detection rats have been consistently increasing case detection rates of collaborating TB clinics by about 40% and cumulatively detected over 9,000 TB patients missed by routine care. APOPO is considered as a key partner in accelerating TB/HIV elimination in Tanzania and Mozambique and has full local commitment from the governments and affiliated institutes, local universities, and civil society organizations.

Plans

In the future, APOPO hopes detection rats will become a key instrument in curbing the spread of tuberculosis in large urban areas. Exceptionally fast, accurate, and cost-effective, they have an important role to play in screening large and at-risk populations.[12]

Besides detecting tuberculosis, APOPO is committed to ensure that each and every patient completes their tuberculosis treatment. Therefore APOPO entered into a partnership with OpASHA (http://www.opasha.org/) which developed eCompliance technology to improve treatment adherence.

Training detection rats

File:Food Reward.JPG
A Detection Rat receives her food reward

Full training of a detection rat takes approximately nine months on average, and is followed by a series of accreditation tests.[4] The rats are socialized and then trained through principles of operant conditioning. When the rats first begin their training, they learn to associate a “click” sound with a food reward of banana or peanuts. Once they learn that "click" means food, the rats are trained on a target scent. Rats trained to detect mines are taught that when they indicate TNT (the explosive in most mines), they will hear a click and then get food. The rats working on TB detection are trained using TB-positive samples.

After various stages of training which build on the skills learned in the previous stage, the rat is ready to go to work in either a minefield or into the research lab for tuberculosis or remote scent tracing (RST) detection.[4]

Partners

APOPO has officially partnered with Sokoine University of Agriculture, The University of Antwerp, The National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Program (NTLP), The National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD), The Tanzanian Peoples Defense Forces (TPDF), JENEL TVD and the Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA). APOPO’s funding partners include the Belgian, Flemish and Norwegian Governments, the United Nations Development Programme, the US Department of State’s National Institutes of Health (NIH), the European Union, the Province of Antwerp, and the World Bank. APOPO also gathers support from private donors and public fundraising campaigns.[14]

Awards

Images

  • HeroRAT Logo on a lorry that takes the HeroRATS to work every morning

  • Rat eating ban.jpg

    HeroRAT eating a banana

  • HeroRAT rewarded.jpg

    A HeroRAT is rewarded with a banana for finding a land mine

  • Advanced stage training.jpg

    A HeroRAT searches for land mines on the practice field in Morogoro, Tanzania in direct detection

  • Trained HeroRAT analyzing sputum samples for tuberculosis.jpg

    A HeroRAT sniffing sputum samples looking for tuberculosis

  • Click training.jpg

    A young HeroRAT learns to associate clicks with food- bananas and peanuts

  • Trainers and HeroRAT.jpg

    A HeroRAT and his trainer

See also

References

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External links

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