This article was found in the US News and World Report Newspaper. The author is unknown, however, it was written in Athens Georgia and explains how migrating animals, such as Monarch Butterflies, can potential prevent the spread of infectious disease. The article can be found here, http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2011/01/21/long-distance-migration-may-help-reduce-infectious-disease-risks-for-many-animal-species.
The author goes on to say how migrating animals may protect other animals, including humans, from contracting infectious disease. The author explains how animals who have diseases would die off during migration and there would be more of a chance of little or no disease being brought to the new land where the animal is migrating to. Also, when the hosts of the disease have migrated, the remaining parasites will die off and when the host returns back home, the parasite numbers will be significantly lower.
An example of this in the article is described by this quote, "Long migratory journeys can also weed infected animals from the population: imagine running a marathon with the flu. This not only prevents those individuals from spreading disease to others, it also helps to eliminate some of the most virulent strains of pathogens."
There are some Monarch Butterflies that migrate from Canada to Mexico, while there are others that don't migrate at all. In a study done on Monarch Butterflies it was shown that there was less infected butterflies in the group that did migrate versus the one that didn't.
I think that this was a very interesting article. I had always thought that migrating animals would probably spread a disease where ever they went, I never thought about how the parasite wouldn't be able to survive. Many of these species habitats are disappearing and if they don't have a place to live than they can no longer migrate and we may end up contracting more diseases than we thought we ever would.
When I read the title I was initially thinking about the book "House of the Scorpion" and how the main character's life was saved when he gradually was fed milkweed like how monarch butterflies do to make themselves unpalatable to predators. Once I read the article however this was not the case.
ReplyDeleteThe concept of always being on the move to avoid disease is definitely practical, even if it is not intentional. It brings up reminders of people during the plague. That is, the rich who fled upon being alerted to disease nearby. One may wonder however of the diseases that migratory animals may encounter during their migration, rather than at their destination.
The thought of butterflies becoming healthier this way is kind of counter intuitive from the disease stand point. It would appear that strains of disease that affect the Monarch Butterflies the least are more prone to survival since the butterflies will make the trip. It's the opposite of survival of the fittest.
ReplyDeleteThe butterflies themselves however are not advancing their resistance this way. Rather than grow stronger and resistant to different strains instead they simply travel and let the weak die off. Weeding out the weak ones but not advancing the species is also counter intuitive.
This was really interesting! I had never though how migration would decease the spread of diseases or that butterflies are so important to it all. I found it interesting that as animals migrate, those who have a disease or parasite die off and the stronger survive, continuing a survival of the strongest, similar to survival of the fittest. Yet, it also seems that migration itself would cause deaths just as well as remaining in one location.
ReplyDeleteAlex, I thought the same thing. I saw the article and was interested because I never thought that butterflies were significant to disease control at all. It was pretty cool to learn that such small animals can really help humans from getting a disease. I also agree with the point you made about migration causing deaths as well. I'm a million percent sure that not every butterfly that migrates actually survives but it is an advangtage for them because they get to live in a warmer place, and we can benefit from less diseases being transmitted to us.
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