Parasites can cause freshwater shrimps to become cannibals, according to new scientific findings. The researchers at Queen’s University Belfast, South Africa’s Stellenbosch University, and the University of Leeds had found out that Pleistophora Mulleri brought cannibalism to the small crustaceans, as reported by Tech Times.
“Although the parasite is tiny, there are millions of them in the host muscle,” Mandy Bunke from the University of Leeds said, according to Eurekalert. “They all rely on the host for food. This increased demand for food by the parasites may drive the host to be more cannibalistic.”
Dr. Alison Dunn of the University of Leeds has pointed out that cannibalism is “fairly common” for freshwater shrimps. However, the main goal of their research was to find out whether or not parasitism could further induce the tiny creatures to eat each other out, according to Sci-News.
True enough, their findings proved that the parasites compelled the shrimps to eat twice as much of their own kin. The adult shrimps’ consumption of the much younger shrimps is actually a normal event. However, after meticulous research, they discovered that the adults tended to become even more aggressive after they got infected.
They have come to the conclusion that cannibalism was “the only way these sick animals can survive.” The infection is passed from one shrimp to another after “one shrimp cannibalizes another.”
Moreover, they also noticed that the uninfected shrimps avoided eating parasitized shrimps, unlike those that have already been infected – not seeming to care whether their food carries an infection or not.