Since 1997, APOPO, a non-profit organization based in Tanzania, has deployed African giant pouched rats (Cricetomys ansorgei) to detect landmines in post-conflict areas. More recent research suggests the pouched rats can also be trained to detect tuberculosis in human sputum samples. Despite proven success on both tasks, the potential impact of each rat is limited by the required training time and constraint to a single target odor. The aim of this project was to establish a technique to rapidly train pouched rats to detect multiple odor targets. Eight pouched rats were trained to detect five unrelated target odors in Experiment 1. In addition to training duration, we measured maintenance of all odor targets. In Experiment 2, we examined response persistence under conditions of extinction. Experiment 3 investigated whether refresher sessions before tests would maintain detection accuracy. The animals mastered all odor targets in significantly fewer sessions than APOPO's operational rats require to master a single target odor. Importantly, rats demonstrated strong discrimination between targets and non-targets despite the potential for interference and forgetting, suggesting pouched rats can be trained to detect at least five targets simultaneously. These results have the potential to increase the impact of each detection rat by both decreasing training time and expanding operational versatility, e.g., a single rat could be trained to detect multiple diseases.

中文翻译：

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使用多个目标快速训练非洲巨型袋鼠（Cricetomys ansorgei）进行气味检测

自 1997 年以来，总部设在坦桑尼亚的非营利组织 APOPO 已部署非洲巨型袋鼠（Cricetomys ansorgei）来探测冲突后地区的地雷。最近的研究表明，也可以训练袋鼠来检测人类痰液样本中的结核病。尽管在这两项任务上都取得了成功，但每只大鼠的潜在影响受到所需的训练时间和单一目标气味的限制。该项目的目的是建立一种快速训练袋鼠检测多种气味目标的技术。在实验 1 中，八只袋鼠被训练检测五种不相关的目标气味。除了训练持续时间外，我们还测量了所有气味目标的维持情况。在实验 2 中，我们检查了灭绝条件下的响应持久性。实验 3 调查了测试前的复习课程是否会保持检测的准确性。与 APOPO 的操作大鼠掌握单个目标气味所需的时间相比，动物掌握所有气味目标的次数要少得多。重要的是，尽管存在干扰和遗忘的可能性，大鼠仍表现出对目标和非目标的强烈区分，这表明可以训练袋鼠同时检测至少五个目标。这些结果有可能通过减少训练时间和扩大操作多功能性来增加每只检测大鼠的影响，例如，可以训练一只大鼠检测多种疾病。s 操作大鼠需要掌握单一目标气味。重要的是，尽管存在干扰和遗忘的可能性，大鼠仍表现出对目标和非目标的强烈区分，这表明可以训练袋鼠同时检测至少五个目标。这些结果有可能通过减少训练时间和扩大操作多功能性来增加每只检测大鼠的影响，例如，可以训练一只大鼠检测多种疾病。s 操作大鼠需要掌握单一目标气味。重要的是，尽管存在干扰和遗忘的可能性，大鼠仍表现出对目标和非目标的强烈区分，这表明可以训练袋鼠同时检测至少五个目标。这些结果有可能通过减少训练时间和扩大操作多功能性来增加每只检测大鼠的影响，例如，可以训练一只大鼠检测多种疾病。