Meas Sambath, who is one of three guides at the
APOPO centre and showing Tienhooven and Peterson around that day, says he does not like to focus too much on Cambodia's tragic recent history, but instead look to positives in the present and future - including the rats.
Just over a year ago, the South Africa-based Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) announced it was teaming up with
Apopo on a pilot project aimed at detecting illegal pangolin and timber samples.
Over the next few years,
APOPO plans to fight tuberculosis at the source by launching TB-detection rat facilities in major cities of 30 high-risk countries including Vietnam, India and Nigeria.
She works for the People's Postcode Lottery, which funds
APOPO, and had won her place on the memorable trip.
Finally, in Tanzania and Mozambique,
APOPO vzw has trained giant pouched rats for the detection of pulmonary tuberculosis in sputum samples.
APOPO first started its research in 1998 and has now been successfully used in more than 60 countries.
Apopo pampers the rats, which get better health care than most Angolans.
A group called
APOPO had such good results with trained rats that it has deployed them to detect mines in Angola and Mozambique and uses them in Tanzania to screen people for tuberculosis by evaluating sputum samples.
Through his organization, called
APOPO, Weetjens trains rats to find TB by using their noses.
Mine clearance charity
Apopo has received PS60,000 to put giant Gambian pouched rats through eight months of training to detect the explosive TNT.