Tanzania: Study confirms rats' ability to detect TB

Rats that can smell the tuberculosis (TB) bacterium in a sputum sample could be more effective in detecting TB than expensive laboratory tests, a study suggests. The Gambian pouched rat (Cricetomys gambianus), found all over Sub-Saharan Africa, can smell the difference between TB bacteria and other germs found in human phlegm, according to researchers writing in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene last month (December).