Courtney, UR- Biomedical Bleeding of Horseshoe Crabs

Blood harvesting of live horseshoe crabs

Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) is a pharmaceutical product that can only be obtained from the blue blood of horseshoe crab, It is used to ensure that vaccines and medical equipment are bacterial free which makes it lifesaving to humans. Each year almost half a million live horseshoe crabs are harvested for their blood and they are heavily bled, taking 20-30% of their blood. Unfortunately about 20-30% also die due the blood harvesting. 



This device is the accelerometer used to track the movements before blood harvesting. 



Researchers in this article, "Biomedical Bleeding Affects Horseshoe Crab Behavior", were curious as to exactly how many of the released horseshoe crabs are falling into the same fate and to help answer this question researchers monitored the movements of captured crabs for a week  before taking blood from them. "Electronic data recorders called accelerometers that measure the crabs’ speed and direction were strapped to their backs and the crabs were placed in running wheels in tanks filled with seawater." It was noticed that the horseshoe crabs moved less and seemed almost disorientated for up to two weeks after the procedure.

spawning horseshoe crabs

Horseshoe crabs are harvested in the middle of their spawning season because they are easily captured by the thousands but if taking their blood alters their behavior in negative ways then could this make them less likely to breed? If so then this could be a huge factor in the declining populations of horseshoe crabs along the east coast of the United States.






Researchers in the recent article believe that with improved capture and transport methods as well as wait until the end of the breeding cycle could drastically improve the declining population numbers of these unique and crucial creatures!