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Horseshoe crabs be like
(i.ibb.co)
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this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2024
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I find it hard to understand, what special thing the blood has, that is not synthetically manufacturable. With most foodstuff companies trying to synthetically manufacture as much of the food as they can, what makes this "Near Threatened" animal, so important to harvest?
I googled it for you, there is LAL which is a blood clotting agent (that exists only in the blood of horseshoe crabs) that reacts with the bacterial capsule which makes it important for vaccine safety tests. Alternatives do exist but ya know, money is more important to corporations than some animal's life.
What are the alternatives, and how can we reduce their costs to match that of horseshoe crab blood?
I have done some more googling (I can't stress this enough, I am just googling)
The top alternatives are rFC (genetically modified cells produce the required enzyme) and MAT (human monocytes do the detection) They're more costly, picking ready fruit is easier than growing an orchard.
Also I should mention how new the alternatives are, they're just (2018 is just now for me lol) getting their approvals and regulations so given time LAL will be replaced.
That sounds encouraging!
Subsidies
So they'll use alternatives once the crabs go extinct.
Well... 😶