and medical devices for contamination.
In the era before the use of these animal extracts for testing, although drugs and medical devices were sterilized, they would sometimes cause patients to develop fevers due to an immune reaction to endotoxins, which are remnants of bacteria destroyed by the sterilization process. When a sample from a drug or device is added to LAL and the solution hardens into a gel, it indicates the sample is contaminated and not safe for human use.
New approach could help save animal populations
To produce LAL, the crabs are captured and roughly 30 percent of their blood drained before they are returned to the ocean. There is disagreement on how many crabs die as a result of the procedure, but their estimated mortality rate can be as high as 30 percent, according to the United States Geological Survey.
A conservative estimate puts the number of horseshoe crabs on the Atlantic Coast between New Jersey and Virginia at between 2.3 to 4.5 million, according to the Ecological Research & Development Group. In recent years, the populations of the horseshoe crab and shore birds that rely on them for food both have been in decline, with the red knot, a rust-colored species of shore bird, of particular concern.
Each spring the bird migrates 20,000 miles from the islands of Tierra del Fuego, off the southern tip of South America, to the Delaware Bay on the east coast of the United States. From April to May, the bird feasts on horseshoe crab eggs found on beaches, nearly doubling its body weight to sustain its health for the long flight south.
Studies have discovered a precipitous decline in the red knot population. One study by researchers at the University of Toronto found that the Tierra del Fuego population of red knots declined from 53,000 birds to 27,000 birds between 2000 and 2002. The decline has been linked to the reduction in the number of horseshoe crabs, as a result of harves
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| Contact: Chris Emery cemery@princeton.edu 609-258-4597 Princeton University, Engineering School Source:Eurekalert |
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