Why is horseshoe crab blood so expensive top 4 facts

Few organisms are as odd, or as old, as the horseshoe crab.

That they predate the dinosaurs, a time when everything was large, might explain

 their oversize, helmet-shaped shells, which can grow as large as 20 inches. 

They limp along the tidal flats as if a smaller creature was hiding inside that shell,

 using it to move about incognito. Anatomically, they’re more like spiders than

 crustaceans, and they fluoresce under ultraviolet light.

 for venereal disease, bacterial meningitis as well as cholera, bubonic plague and

 other diseases. Immune cells in the crabs’ blood trap and immobilize these type

 of endotoxins, rendering them inert.

It’s a blessing and a curse because once scientists discovered this amazing

 defense system back in the 1960s, we began using it for ourselves, bleeding

 horseshoe crabs and separating out that clotting feature to test medications,

 needles and biomedical devices to make sure they are contaminant free.

Their blood has been so useful — enabling scientists to create vaccines that help

 humans fend off everything from migraines to melanomas and most recently 

the coronavirus — that we’ve made a dent in their population.

But while science created a problem, it may be able to fix it.

A new technology is available that uses a man-made version of crab blood to

 detect endotoxins, but it has stirred a debate over whether it is as good. 

The debate has pitted ­conservation-minded scientists against a board that sets

 scientific standards why is horseshoe crab blood valuable for the 

pharmaceutical industry, which believes more study

 needs to be done before a synthetic version of crab blood can be used.

It is used to test for why is horseshoe crab blood so expensive top 4

contamination during the manufacture of anything that might go inside the

 human body: every shot, every IV drip, and every implanted medical device

It is used to test for contamination why is horseshoe crab blood so expensive top 4

during the manufacture of anything that might go inside the human body:

 every shot, every IV drip, and every implanted medical device.

why is horseshoe crab blood valuable, It is used for Medical equipment and

 Vaccine testing prior to use – Quite a lot actually and this in turn saves many lives

. The active agent here is Coagulan. Unfortunately the harvesting of this is in it’s

 infancy so a TON of crabs have to be harvested for their blood. 

Even with protective measures in place (such as harvesting only 30% of blood from each Crab, after which it is why is horseshoe crab blood valuable

returned to the ocean) it is estimated that this procedure 35% of females breed

 less. But hey….apparently at $15,000/liter perhaps the industry is turning a blind

 eye. Ok. Not perhaps. More like for sure.

Yes, but we are unsure exactly what that experience is to the crab. Horseshoe

 crabs have a nervous system that  why is horseshoe crab blood valuable

is capable of encoding noxious stimuli, which is the foundation of a pain response

. This stimuli is then processed by the brain, which is why different people have

 different pain tolerances. The brains of horseshoe crabs are very primitive,

 so it’s impossible to predict if they feel “pain” why is horseshoe crab blood valuable

in the same way that we or other creatures do. why is horseshoe crab blood so expensive top 4

In my experience working with them, I’d say they can certainly experience some

 sort of discomfort associated with pain. They have specific reactions to pain

 stimuli and will contort or clench up, so it obviously isn’t a pleasant experience.

 They are also a lot smarter than many people believed. Their brains do a lot of

 insane synchronizing with their visual sensory inputs, and they seem to have an

 ability to be why is horseshoe crab blood so expensive top 4

conditioned to certain stimulus. For example, almost all of the horseshoe crabs I 

have worked with demonstrated a connection with my voice and getting fed.

 I noticed that why is horseshoe crab blood so expensive top 4

when I would walk into the lab, away from them, and speak to the other

 researcher, they would pile up on the side where I would normally feed them. 

If I entered silently they behaved normally. why is horseshoe crab blood so expensive top 4

I was even able to “call them over” to feed them, which made me realize how little

 we know about their intelligence. why is horseshoe crab blood so expensive top 4

Each individual showed a different capability to learn this, and if they don’t like

 the food being offered (clam was their least favorite) they would stop coming to

 my why is horseshoe crab blood so expensive top 4

voice until the next feeding session. Given this I think that their interpretation of

 pain might be closer to ours than we might initially think.

Let’s start with why we want their blood in the first place. 

There is a factor in horseshoe crab blood that is extremely sensitive to certain impurities such that it is used to test why is horseshoe crab blood valuable

pretty much every injectable pharmaceutical in the world. Historically speaking,

 limiting access to this resource by ‘protecting’ the crabs would likely piss off the

 pharmaceutical industry; and you know how that would go.

Second, how is the blood obtained? why is horseshoe crab blood valuable

Horseshoe crabs live a mostly solitary life in fairly shallow water (<100 feet). 

That changes at spawning time when they congregate in high concentrations on

 specific beaches to lay their eggs. During that period the animals are collected,

 taken to a lab, their blood partially drained, after which they are returned to the

 wild. American practices for this are fairly conservative and have a decent survival

 rate. Asian practices…. not so much. Regardless of lab practices, 

you’ve still got animals being collected right when they are trying to reproduce.

 Obviously that means less eggs and fewer baby crabs to form the next

 generation. What is less obvious is that the eggs are a major food source for

 migratory shore birds – To the point that the birds time their migration to arrive 

at spawning beaches at the right time. why is horseshoe crab blood valuable.

When unfavorable organisms such as Gram negative bacteria are present, 

these proteins are produced, causing the animal’s blood to clot around 

the wound and germs, saving the animal from further damage.

Vaccines, injectable medications, intravenous solutions, and implanted medical

 devices for people and animals are proven to be safe using a test derived from

 horseshoe crab blood. horseshoe crab blood price

As we moved on to bleeding crabs for biomedical purposes, there also wasn’t a

 real incentive to develop a commercial system. Spawning events in states like

 Maryland and North Carolina have thousands of horseshoe crabs coming to the

 shores to spawn, and it’s simple to scoop them up and take them to a nearby lab

 for bleeding.

As their population numbers have begun decreasing, scientists have sought

 alternatives to the wild harvest. The most popular development so far was a

 synthetic reagent that could replace the reagent made from their blood,

 however despite its success in Europe and moderate success in Asia, 

the United States refuses to really accept it. This reagent was patented 

until 2018 by the biomedical company Lonza, and now even though other

 companies can manufacture similar reagents it is much cheaper to create

 LAL reagents. horseshoe crab blood price Producing synthetic reagents requires

 culturing genetically modified insect cells, whereas producing LAL reagents

 from blood requires centrifugation and lysing, which is essentially no-cost on their end. horseshoe crab blood price

It’s a tricky industry to get into. For one thing horseshoe crabs take up to 10 years

 to mature in captivity, so even when they were popular as bait nobody ever

 thought to develop a commercial-level aquaculture system for them. 

A lot of the aquaculture/life support systems we have in aquatics today is thanks

 to the economic incentive of farming a profitable marine species. Horseshoe

 crabs take too long to raise, so there was no incentive to keep them in

 aquaculture. So what is the horseshoe crab blood price

Horseshoe crabs are very difficult to keep alive in managed care.

 Even at AZA accredited aquariums you see a high degree of horseshoe crab blood facts mortality. Even worse, horseshoe crab blood facts are hard to get to breed.

 Every population of horseshoe crabs uses slightly different environmental cues to

 trigger spawning events even within the same species, which can range from

 moon cycle, water salinity, geographic location, water temperature, etc. 

This makes artificial insemination one of the only reliable ways to get them to

 breed in captivity, and that requires money and time that companies aren’t

 willing to spend. horseshoe crab blood facts

Furthermore, horseshoe crabs kept in captivity often have poor blood quality for

 biomedical purposes. Their amebocyte count is low and the reactivity of the LAL

 produced from their blood is reduced. For a long time we didn’t know why since their base needs seemed to be met, so aquacultured horseshoe crabs were 

a poor choice for producing LAL reagents.

Thankfully, recent research suggests that diet variation is the key to maintaining

 biomedical-grade blood quality in captive horseshoe crabs. Since horseshoe crab blood facts eat a varied diet in the wild, scavenging off of whatever they can find,

 mimicking this in captivity produces high quality blood. In fact, aquacultured

 blood can exceed the quality of wild-harvested blood. In the coming years if the

 synthetic reagent fails to gain traction and population numbers continue to

 decline, you might see a rise in horseshoe crab blood facts aquaculture.

So, the LAL test is used to detect LPS from a variety of sources, blood, urine, etc.

 LAL stands for Limulus Amebocyte Lysate test. So, to do the test, Limulus (crab)

 amoebocytes (blood cells) are lysed (split open) to obtain the lysate which will

 make a gelatinous clot in the presence of LPS/endotoxin. 

The clotting can be followed in a variety of ways, including turbidity

 measurements and colormetrically. I understand the test is very sensitive.

It is used in the manufacturing process for all(almost all?) Pharmaceutical drugs.

 You see, the funny thing about their blood is that it will congeal in the presence

 of impurities. (Folks closer to the process can fine tune that high level description,

 OTOH the OP could look it up themselves. Its not exactly hidden information on

 the internet. )

IOW its used to ensure the drugs you take to save your life are pure and can do

 their job.

Gosh I remember as kids, we were certain their tail would pierce your foot if you

 stepped on it, God only knew what teeth and stingers they had under that shell.

 Truth is they couldn’t hurt you if they tried! Completely and absolutely harmless

 critters, who just happen to be key figures in the eco system.