Horseshoe crab

Thursday 8th April 2021

One of my resolutions this year is to read a chapter of a book every day. At the moment I am reading Tony Jupiter's book What had Nature ever done for us? Great book and I am annoying Robin every day with the new facts that I find out! Todays amazing fact. Horseshoe crab blood is used in the testing of vaccines. Their blood is rich in copper and clots when it comes across any bacteria. It is used to test contamination of vaccine batches before they are shipped out. There is no substitute at the moment so they are vital to all vaccine production. They are caught, 'milked' of one third of their blood and then returned to the ocean. Horseshoe crabs: the ingredient still key to testing vaccines | World Economic Forum (weforum.org). They are just one (very important and little known) example of what nature does for us!