Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2015 Aug 31:21:333.
doi: 10.11604/pamj.2015.21.333.2977. eCollection 2015.

Using giant African pouched rats to detect human tuberculosis: a review

Alan Poling  1 , Amanda Mahoney  2 , Negussie Beyene  2 , Georgies Mgode  3 , Bart Weetjens  2 , Christophe Cox  2 , Amy Durgin  2
Affiliations
Review

Using giant African pouched rats to detect human tuberculosis: a review

Alan Poling et al. Pan Afr Med J. .

Abstract

Despite its characteristically low sensitivity, sputum smear microscopy remains the standard for diagnosing tuberculosis (TB) in resource-poor countries. In an attempt to develop an alternative or adjunct to microscopy, researchers have recently examined the ability of pouched rats to detect TB-positive human sputum samples and the microbiological variables that affect their detection. Ten published studies, reviewed herein, suggest that the rats are able to detect the specific odor of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes TB, and can substantially increase new-case detections when used for second-line TB screening following microscopy. Further research is needed to ascertain the rats' ability to detect TB in children and in HIV-positive patients, to detect TB when used for first-line screening, and to be useful in broad-scale applications where cost-effectiveness is a major consideration.

Keywords: Tuberculosis detection; discrimination learning; mycobacterium tuberculosis; operant conditioning; pouched rats; scent detection.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. World Health Organization. Tuberculosis fact sheet N 104. Retrieved March 5, 2013 from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs104/en/.
    1. Dye C, Watt CJ, Bleed D, Hosseini SM, Raviglione C. Evolution of tuberculosis control and prospects for reducing tuberculosis incidence, prevalence, and deaths globally. J Am Med Assoc. 2005;293(22):2767–2775. - PubMed
    1. Steingart KR, Henry M, Ng V, Hopewell PC, Ramsay A, Cunningham J, Irbanczik R, Perkins M, Azia M, Pal M. Fluorescence versus conventional sputum smear microscopy for tuberculosis: a systematic review. Lancet Infect Dis. 2006;6(9):570–581. - PubMed
    1. Ioannidis P, Papaventsis D, Karabela S, Nikolaou S, Panagi M, Raftopoulou E, et al. Cepheid GeneXpert MTB/RIF assay for Mycobacterium tuberculosis detection and rifampin resistance identification in patients with substantial clinical indications of tuberculosis and smear-negative microscopy results. J Clin Microbiol. 2011;49(8):3068–3070. - PMC - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization. Pathways to better diagnostics for tuberculosis: A blueprint for the development of TB diagnostics by the new diagnostics working group of the Stop TB Partnership. WHO Press; 2009.

Publication types