The Economics of Everyday Things
28. Horseshoe Crab Blood
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Quick takeaways
- Horseshoe crab blood is vital for detecting toxins in medical testing but its harvesting raises ethical concerns about the long-term survival of the species.
- While synthetic alternatives to horseshoe crab blood exist, the added costs hinder their widespread adoption, posing challenges for horseshoe crab populations in the future.
Deep dives
Horseshoe Crab Blood: A Valuable Commodity with Ethical Concerns
Horseshoe crabs produce a blood that is highly valuable for its ability to detect toxins in pharmaceutical testing. This discovery in the 1960s led to the development of the LAL test, which is widely used to ensure the safety of medical devices, vaccines, and other injectable medications. The commercial market for horseshoe crabs began in the 19th century, initially as fertilizer and chicken feed, later shifting to bait for eel fishing. Currently, only five companies in the US are licensed to harvest horseshoe crabs and collect their blood. The harvesting process involves strapping live crabs to racks and extracting their blood before releasing them back into the wild. Concerns about the impact on horseshoe crab populations, breeding, and potential long-term harm to the species have raised ethical debates between environmentalists and biomedical firms.
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