Friday, July 24, 2015

How Giant Prawns Could Fight Tropical Disease and Poverty – Phenomena: Not Exactly Rocket Science

How Giant Prawns Could Fight Tropical Disease and Poverty – Phenomena: Not Exactly Rocket Science: "But help is at hand. A team of scientists led by Susanne Sokolow from Stanford University has been working on a way of stopping the outbreak by bringing the snails—and their parasites—under control. Their plan? Add prawns.

The lower Senegal River used to be home to a hand-sized, long-clawed prawn called Macrobrachium vollenhovenii, that would devour the parasite-carrying snails. Every year, the female prawns would walk downstream to the estuary to lay their eggs; later, the larvae would swim back upstream. The Diama Dam cut off both routes and exterminated the prawns. By reintroducing them, Sokolow hopes to control the rampant snails and bring schistosomiasis to heel."



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