Washington, Mar. 16: The African Army Research Office has paid an Oklahoma State University''s Zoology professor to study the African giant pouched rat to detect its ability to find bombs. The animal is said to have bad vision, but an acute sense of smell.

Professor Alexander Ophir says the rat''s olfactory ability could someday be used to detect explosives, and they could be used instead of dogs to detect bombs.

APOPO, a Belgian charity, already uses the African giant pouched rat, which can grow up to three feet long, to detect land mines. The rats are also being trained to smell tuberculosis-causing bacteria to determine if someone could be suffering from the disease.

Ophir says his work aims to observe the rats in their natural environment and then identify personality types, or temperaments, that may determine whether some rats are better at detecting the bombs, AOL News reports.

Once that trait is identified, they would check to see if DNA could be linked to it and then use that genetic marker to pick out rats with similar genes at birth and train them for bomb detection.

Ophir also said that the rats could be used for detecting land mines or roadside bombs in places like Iraq and Afghanistan adding that transportation Security Administration agents could also use them to screen cargo at airports.

According to Ophir, the advantages of using rats over dogs are many, including that they are easier to train.

He said: " Dogs bond with their trainers, rats don''t bond," adding that dogs mostly work with one highly specialized handler, while rats could work with anybody who has a reasonable amount of training. One person could work with five or six rats, making them more cost-effective than dogs.

However, it remains to be seen if these rats have a better sense of smell than dogs

Ophir says that the major drawback of using rats is that it is difficult to find something to motivate them to look for the explosives. Food works well, but once the rats are full, it no longer motivates them to work.

He said: "We need to find something that motivates them that they don''t satiate to. Sex, for example, is very rewarding," adding that for dogs, the `prey instinct,' which can be represented by something as simple as a tennis ball, works well. (ANI)