“Researchers Discover Parasitic Worm That Turns Ants into Zombies”
Scientists at the University of Copenhagen have recently published a study on the lancet liver fluke, a parasitic worm with a creepy survival strategy. The lancet liver fluke infects ants and essentially turns them into zombies, manipulating their behavior for its own benefit.
The parasitic flatworm has a complex life cycle, exploiting ants, grazing animals like cows, deer, and sheep, and snails to ensure the survival of its next generation. According to Brian Lund Fredensborg, an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen, the lancet liver fluke is considered a “poster child of parasite manipulation of host behavior.”
The researchers found that the lancet liver fluke enters an ant’s brain, essentially hijacking it and causing the infected insect to climb to the top of a blade of grass where it clamps its jaws and remains. When grazing animals come to feed, they consume the infected ants along with the grass, allowing the worms to move into the larger animal’s liver.
Fredensborg notes that while lancet liver fluke rarely affects humans and does not impact the human brain, understanding how parasites manipulate host behavior can increase scientists’ knowledge about their level of sophistication and help in understanding other behavior-manipulating parasites that may infect humans.
The researchers also discovered that air temperature affects the behavior of the infected ants, providing insight into how the environment can play a role in returning the ants back to normal. Some scientists suggest that the process involves manipulating certain brain chemicals, although the specific mechanisms behind the lancet liver fluke’s control of ant behavior remain under investigation.
Other parasites, such as the Toxoplasma gondii found in undercooked meat and cat feces, have been shown to affect human health by potentially altering brain chemicals and promoting the development of schizophrenia. Fredensborg points out that while the behavior changes induced by these parasites are different, their underlying mechanisms may be similar.
Overall, this research sheds light on the sophisticated ways in which parasites manipulate host behavior and the potential for the environment to influence these interactions. By understanding how parasites change host behavior, scientists hope to draw a link between infection of the host, changes in brain chemistry, and subsequent behavior.