Pharmaceutical industry’s dependence on horseshoe crab’s blue blood threatens a dwindling bird species

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A prehistoric sea creature, residing along the Eastern Coast’s tidal mudflats and crucial to the production of essential drugs, might see some relief due to new protective measures.

However, conservationists battling for years to rescue the dwindling bird species, the red knot, which relies on horseshoe crabs as a food source, worry that these protective measures might still be insufficient.

The medical and pharmaceutical industries heavily rely on the precious blue blood of these helmet-shaped invertebrates, which have survived in the ocean and tidal pools for over 400 million years, to test for possible hazardous contaminants. These creatures are bled and then returned to the wild, but a significant number succumb to the bleeding process.

Regulators assert that recent amendments to handling guidelines should increase their survival rate. Despite not being real crabs, but closer to terrestrial invertebrates like spiders and scorpions, these creatures are facing a decline in some parts of their East Coast habitat.

“They preceded the dinosaurs,” stated Glenn Gauvry, the head of Ecological Research & Development Group, a Delaware-based nonprofit that champions horseshoe crab conservation. “Now they’re under threat because the latest arrivals, humans, have failed to value these ancient creatures.”

The biomedical industry has been implementing new standards to protect this ancient sea creature, pivotal to the production of essential medicines.

Over the years, the harvesting of horseshoe crabs, also utilized as bait in commercial fishing, has become a vital concern for conservationists due to the creature’s key role in coastal ecosystems. The eggs of these crabs provide critical nourishment for a dwindling subspecies of the red knot bird — a threatened migratory shorebird under the Endangered Species Act.

These birds, which undertake a round trip of around 19,000 miles from South America to Canada, require enhanced protection of horseshoe crabs to survive, noted Bethany Kraft, the senior director for coastal conservation with the Audubon Society. Kraft and other wildlife advocates expressed concern that voluntary handling guidelines for crabs might still leave the red knot vulnerable.

The precious nature of horseshoe crabs lies in their blood’s ability to be transformed into limulus amebocyte lysate, or LAL, a substance used to detect pathogens in vital medicines such as injectable antibiotics. These crabs are harvested manually or by trawlers for use by biomedical companies, and their blood is then separated and proteins within their white blood cells are processed.

Regulatory authorities estimate that approximately 15% of crabs die due to the bleeding process. In 2021, this meant around 112,000 crabs perished, according to Caitlin Starks, a senior fishery management plan coordinator with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

Nonetheless, the fisheries commission in May sanctioned new best management practices for the biomedical industry’s harvesting and handling of the crabs, aimed at minimizing exposure to sunlight and keeping crabs cool and moist, said Starks.

While the industry is striving towards a synthetic alternative, the wild harvest of horseshoe crabs remains vital to drug safety, said Nora Blair from Charles River Laboratories, one of the companies that manufactures LAL from horseshoe crab blood.

“The critical role of horseshoe crabs in the biopharmaceutical supply chain and coastal ecosystem necessitates their conservation,” he added.

The density of horseshoe crab eggs in the Delaware Bay, one of their most vital habitats, is nowhere near what it was in the 1990s, according to Lawrence Niles, an independent wildlife biologist who once led New Jersey’s state endangered species program. Simultaneously, the population of the rufa red knot, the threatened subspecies, has declined by 75% since the 1980s, as per the National Park Service.

The horseshoe crabs have been harvested for medicinal and bait uses from Florida to Maine over the years, with the largest harvests seen in Maryland, Delaware, Massachusetts, and Virginia. The crabs were worth approximately $1.1 million in total at the docks in 2021, according to federal fishery statistics.

“Everything you do in life comes from horseshoe crab blood. Vaccines, antibiotics,” said George Topping, a Maryland fisherman. “The horseshoe crab stocks are healthy.”

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Horseshoe Crabs

More about Horseshoe Crabs

• Horseshoe Crab Conservation
• Red Knot Bird Species
• Biomedical Use of Horseshoe Crabs
• Endangered Species Act
• Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission