It’s clear from the English language that rats don’t have the best reputation in our culture. Rats are seen as dirty, evil and the spreaders of disease including the plague, which in the 14th century caused the deaths of more than a third of Europe’s population.
However, a recent study has found that it was humans rather than rats that were responsible for the spread of the Black Death.
Instead, today in parts of Africa rats are helping to save lives and fight disease. Rats could be trained to react to the smell of explosives, making them be able to find landmines(地雷). The finding of landmines is usually an expensive business, and countries often lack the resources to carry out the time-consuming and hard work. A human using a metal detector would spend 25 hours searching a 200-square-meter area, while a rat can do the same work in 20 minutes. Not only are rats cheaper than dogs, they are also light enough that they don’t set off the landmines.
And it’s not just landmines. Rats can also smell out specific tuberculosis(肺结核). Every year, three million people infected by TB go undiagnosed and therefore do not receive the care they need. The trained rats can screen 100 samples in 20 minutes, a task that would take a lab technician four days.
Apart from the above, their owners will tell you, they also are your good pets. Pets4Homes points out that contrary to their reputation, rats are clean animals and spend more time cleaning themselves than cats.
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