Morning Briefing

The Wall Street Journal examines the use of the African giant pouched rat to detect tuberculosis (TB) in lab samples. A study published online in the Pan African Medical Journal last month found the rats are "better than human lab techs at identifying TB bacteria in a dollop of mucus," a finding that "holds promise for diagnosing tuberculosis in sub-Saharan Africa," according to the newspaper. While "[t]he rats turn up many false-positive findings of TB, so the results need to be confirmed by conventional lab methods, ... [a] rat takes seven minutes to work through the same number of samples as a lab technician would assess in a full day," according to the researchers, the newspaper reports. The rats are being trained in Tanzania by the non-governmental organization Apopo, which "primarily trains African giant pouched rats to sniff land mines for de-mining activities in Mozambique, Thailand and other countries," the Wall Street Journal notes (Robinson (9/6).