Animals possess all kinds of fascinating abilities, including camouflage, regeneration and — it turns out — diagnostics. Healthline recently highlighted some animals that may be able to detect medical problems in humans using visual cues, smell and other aptitudes.
According to the post, the following five animals may just have what it takes to don the white coat and stethoscope.
1. Dogs. Canines are well known for their skills of detection. Research has suggested dogs can detect breast cancer in 88 percent of cases, and lung cancer with 99 percent accuracy. They can also sense high and low blood sugar levels in people with diabetes, among their many talents.
2. Fruit Flies. These bugs may be annoying, but an Italian study found fruit flies react to the scents of certain cancer cells with changes in their antenna. Additionally, they can differentiate between different types of cancers, and between different types of breast cancers.
3. Mice. U.S. scientists have shown mice can be trained to identify avian flu in the feces of ducks with 90 percent accuracy.
4. Pigeons. Researchers have proven it's possible to train these city birds to differentiate between malignant and benign cancer cells, particularly breast cancer cells. After one day of training, pigeons were identifying malignant cells with 50 percent accuracy, but that jumped to 85 percent accuracy by day 15 of training.
5. Rats. The Gambian pouched rat, or giant African pouched rat, has been trained by humans to uncover landmines and detect tuberculosis. The rodents are able to positively identify TB infections 80 percent of the time, after a training period.