Doctor Pigeon

Pigeons and rats have some superior skills that could help diagnose and treat human diseases.

16:44 15 February 2016

Pigeons, which are often seen as dirty and an urban nuisance, have been found to have superior skills that can help in diagnosing and treating human diseases.

 

These animals may have a brain that is no bigger than the tip of the index finger but they do have impressive visual memory. They can be trained to accurately detect breast cancer in images.

 

Another animal that can help in the field of medicine are rats. Often associated with spreading various diseases, they have highly sensitive detector that can save lives. Their noses are composed of 1,000 different types of olfactory receptors. Humans only have 100-200 types.

 

The animals’ abilities are being studied at the Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo. It is here that rats are trained to make a signal when they detect the presence of TB bacteria in human mucus samples.

 

Although testing can be done by lab technicians, the use of rodents is quicker and more affordable as no specialist equipment is needed. Also a hundred samples can be examined by a lab in two days. Using rats, the same process can be completed in less than 20 minutes.