The use of rats to detect drug-resistant TB

Although detection of drug-susceptible TB by Anti-Per-soonsmijnen Ontmijnende Product Ontwikkeling-trained African giant pouched rats has been known for more than a decade, the detection of drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) using rats has never been explored before. We present what we believe to be the first report on rifampicin-resis-tant TB (RR-TB) detected using Xpert (R) MTB/RIF Ultra, comparably identified by rats sniffing sputum samples from presumptive TB patients: 88% of RR-TB detected us-ing Ultra were identified by the rats. Further evaluation of the usefulness of rats for large-scale DR-TB contact triage testing is needed, especially in low-and middle-income countries, where resources are limited.