Prawns Feel The Pain
By Riaz Bhunnoo
We all know that fish is best eaten fresh. Seafood lovers will even argue that in the case of shellfish, it is best cooked alive. But would this opinion still hold if there was any possibility that the shellfish were suffering? It has been suggested by a scientist at Queen’s University, Belfast that prawns feel pain.Professor Robert Elwood tested his theory by dabbing acetic acid, found in vinegar, onto the antennae of 144 prawns. He found that the prawns reacted by rubbing their antennae for up to five minutes. This reaction, he says, is similar to the reaction shown by mammals that have been exposed to painful irritants: "The prolonged, specifically directed rubbing and grooming is consistent with an interpretation of pain experience," he told New Scientist magazine.
It is widely believed that simple invertebrates that have a limited nervous system cannot feel pain or experience suffering. Professor Elwood challenges this belief and says that the ability to suffer allows animals to learn from harmful experiences and avoid them in the future.
There is however disagreement amongst experts. Dr Lynne Sneddon from Liverpool University has investigated whether eels feel pain and argues that the shrimp could simply be trying to clean their antennae rather than showing a pain response. Other experts suggest that some organisms can recognise a life threatening chemical but not feel any pain. Dr Richard Chapman, from the pain response centre at the University of Utah, said: "Even a single-cell organism can detect a threatening chemical and retreat from it. But this is not sensing pain."The scientists appear to be split on this one but it certainly provides plenty of, ahem, food for thought. There’ll be no lobster thermidore for me tonight.
If you want to know more about Riaz than just what he's eating tonight have a look at his homepage. You might also like these stories:
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Image: Leonardo Menezes
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