Self-healing animals: Ants use aphids as medicine

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“The mortality rate among diseased ants was significantly reduced thanks to the changed composition,” Jason Rissanen of the University of Graz said in a statement from the university on Wednesday.

Together with colleagues from Finland, the Netherlands and Germany, he introduced a bait of gray-black slave ants (Formica fusca) in three different concentrations of aphids infected with a fungus. If they were infected, they were fed foods containing higher amounts of crushed lice during the acute phase of the infection, according to the study in the current issue of the Journal of Biology Letters.

Plants exposed to aphid stress produce oxygen-containing molecules (e.g. hydrogen peroxide) with very high chemical reactivity (ROS). This liquid compound, composed of hydrogen and oxygen (H2O2), is used in many homes as a disinfectant and bleach, among other things. Free oxygen radicals probably also enter the ants’ organism through honeydew from aphids.

It is stated that hydrogen peroxide, which is contained in small animals and has a disinfectant effect, may play a role in the fight against the disease. “The mortality rate among diseased ants was significantly reduced thanks to the changed composition,” Rissanen said.

The authors also touched on the importance of biodiversity as part of the complex system of nutrition and self-medication: The discovery of natural sources of medicines and how animals use a diet to balance or directly combat immune reactions helps understand “how healthy and diverse ecosystems are.” . “We offer animals advantages against the ever-present threat of disease,” the authors conclude.

(SDA)

Source : Blick