Thursday 28/November/2024 – 04:52 PM
Zoologists at the University of Gothenburg have called for an immediate ban on boiling crabs alive, after making a pioneering discovery that… They are already capable of feeling pain like any other animal, meaning that boiling would likely have caused them to die a very painful death.
Zoologists call for an immediate ban on boiling crabs alive
According to Britain’s Daily Mail, lead author Eleftherios Kasiouras, a PhD student at the University of Gothenburg, told Mail Online: ‘We believe that boiling crustaceans alive should be banned, and other techniques such as electrocution should be applied the moment the crustacean is caught.’
He added: “There is increasing evidence, including our own research, that crabs suffer from pain, so we have to treat them as we treat other animals.”
In their study, the researchers used brain scans to see how the crabs’ nervous systems react when exposed to painful stimuli. This revealed the first evidence that the crabs process pain in the same way that humans do.
Subjecting cancers to chemical stimulation
The researchers took partially paralyzed shore crabs, also known as European green crabs, and attached electrodes to groups of nerves called ganglia that make up their central nervous system.
The crabs were then subjected to painful chemical or physical stimulation using acetic acid solutions and specialized probes, and the researchers discovered that damage or pressure to the claws, antennae, and legs caused a spike in electrical activity in the associated ganglia.
“Our results showed that when a painful stimulus was applied to crab tissue, this stimulus was transmitted to the brain, and these responses were prolonged and intense,” says Cassiouras.
Previous research
Previous research has shown that crustaceans such as crabs, shrimp and lobsters likely experience pain, however, these studies focused on observational methods and looked at clues such as increased touching of the affected area or trying to avoid danger.
What makes this recent study different is that it is the first to record how the nervous system of crustaceans actually responds to noxious stimuli. In our bodies, and in the bodies of many other animals, there are specialized receptors called nociceptors, which detect damage and send signals to the central nervous system that are interpreted as pain. .
