With the new #COVID vaccine approved, a reminder that weโre all indebted to the ancient & wondrous horseshoe crab.
Their blue blood contains Limulus Amebocyte Lysate (LAL) which clumps at contact with bacterial toxins. They are caught for their blood to test sterility of medical equipment & injections.
Unfortunately the harvest is unsustainable & populations are in decline. An effective synthetic substitute has been around for 2 decades & we just need the biomedical industry to switch.
@Sheril It's unsustainable because their population is in decline, not because the practice significantly contributes to that decline, correct? My understanding is that typically the animals recover from the bloodletting and are released afterwards.
for those interested, here's where I first heard about this: https://maximumfun.org/episodes/sawbones/how-horseshoe-crabs-probably-saved-your-life/
