Detection Rats

If it has a scent, rats will find it...

All items release a specific scent, or odour signature, which comes from volatile compounds within that item. There is a broad spectrum of detectors available to identify these odour signatures, including: analytical instruments, dogs, pigs and even insects. Thus there is broad competition in the field of vapour detection and analysis, with numerous applications, in the detection of explosives or contraband for customs and security purposes, food quality analysis, gas leak detectors and also in the perfume industry.

The use of animals as detectors is very common. The sensitivity of dogs is well known; they can track directions, have long-term olfactory memory and portray extreme discriminative ability.

As with many animals, the olfaction of rats has been one of its main assets for survival and evolution. While it is very difficult to measure the sensitivity threshold of a species due to odour specificity, it is known that the number of functional genes for olfaction greatly relates to the sensitivity of the species. Rats are proven to have more functional genes for olfaction compared to dogs or other species, which makes them better equipped and more desirable for this work.

The high olfactory sensitivity and trainability of rats, were the key components that encouraged APOPO to investigate rats capacity as scent detectors. Another element that makes rats beneficial as scent detectors is their flexibility. The training methodology APOPO developed for using rats as landmine and tuberculosis detectors can easily be adapted to other substances, which may be of interest in the future.

Apart from developing training methods and equipment, APOPO also carries out applied research into the analysis of the scent source by analytical chemistry, and contributes significantly to the science of detection animals as a whole.