TZ to export 16 rats to Cambodia

Arusha. Tanzania will soon send 16 giant rats to Cambodia to sniff out landmines in the Southeast Asian nation, an official said on Monday.

The giant pouched rats have been trained to detect landmines by Belgian non-profit organization Apopo at its headquarters in Tanzania’s eastern region of Morogoro. Mr Said Dibwe, a trainer from the Apopo Rodent Research Project, said that the Cambodian government has requested Tanzania to deliver 16 rats for landmine detection.

He said the move will save lives of the Cambodian people as well as reducing deaths and injuries caused by landmine explosions. “Right now we are just waiting for the permit from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism so that we can deliver the detection rats to Cambodia,” he said. Apart from that in February this year, Apopo delivered eight detection rats to Cambodia and the response was good and that’s why they have decided to request more. (Agencies)

The demand is huge in countries that have been hit by landmine explosions such as Mozambique, Angola and Cambodia.

“Apopo has already delivered 70 detection rats to Mozambique and we are expecting to deliver eight detection rats to Angola. We are also planning to deliver detection rats to Zimbabwe,” he said.

The Tanzania’s Apopo training centre was established in 2000 and the training for sniffing rats is carried out by the Morogoro-based Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in collaboration with the Department of Biology at the University of Antwerp (UA).

Now known as HeroRats, the African giant pouched rats were initially hunted from the bushes. Later, a breeding programme was launched by Apopo to ensure sustainability of the project which is implemented in collaboration with the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) based in Morogoro.

To date, Apopo has cleared over 18 million square metres of contaminated land, and destroyed over 48,000 landmines and bombs in six countries, helping over 900,000 people to get back on to their productive land, according to the organisation.

Also, the HeroRats have identified over 7,600 tuberculosis patients initially missed by conventional lab tests by 35 clinics in Tanzania and Mozambique.

This has potentially halted over 25,000 further infections, and increased detection rates by over 45 per cent in partnered clinics.

The training facilities comprise 24 hectares of test minefields with over 1,500 deactivated buried landmines. The giant rats have also been trained to detect Tuberculosis (TB).