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Is an end to using imperiled horseshoe crabs for U.S. drug testing in sight? (www.science.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Not everyone is ready to abandon the horseshoe crab protein. “We’re pleased to see that the USP is considering the proposal," <...> However, these alternatives “may not be suitable for all products produced by the biopharmaceutical industry.”

Well I'd best check who said this to make sure they're not biased...

Nora Blair, a senior manager at Charles Rivers Laboratories, a leading source of LAL.

Of course...

You mean to tell me the only person they could find sceptical enough of the alternative drug tests to comment was a person who has direct ties to the manufacturing of the primary drug test?? It's almost like their job depends on them being sceptical!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Its not surprising. I used to work at one of these places and they would laugh at any viable alternative acting like it would never have a chance. They also were well aware of the fact that some of their distributors illegally kill the returned horshoe crabs and turn them into fertilizer. So any claims that they're not hurting the horshoe crabs are bullshit. They've just offloaded the hurt to contractors who are 50/50 on actually trying to protect the crabs and just using them as bait. Even if they didn't do that, I've always been suspect that the crabs do great in the wild after losing 60% of their blood.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Considering that the article itself states that an estimated 30% of horseshoe crabs die during the procedure, before even accounting for post-release deaths due to any trauma, I think you might be onto something.

Who would've known draining ~60% of a horseshoe crab's blood would cause some of them to become fucked up. If you drained 60% of a person's blood, I'd reckon the same thing would happen.