Lobsters 'do feel pain'
Lobsters may be able to feel pain, researchers claim
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Thursday, 08, Nov 2007 10:44
Lobsters, prawns and other invertebrates may be able to feel pain, researchers claim today, calling into question the practice of boiling lobsters alive.
Previous studies have suggested that only vertebrates are able to feel pain but researchers at Queen's University Belfast say they have found convincing evidence that prawns do feel pain, according to the New Scientist which published a report on the findings.
The scientists dabbed irritating acetic acid onto one of 144 prawns' two antennae. In response the prawns groomed and rubbed the affected area for up to five minutes.
This reaction is the same as the way mammals respond when exposed to a noxious substance.
"The prolonged, specifically directed rubbing and grooming is consistent with an interpretation of pain experience," said researcher Dr Robert Elwood.
He hopes that the findings will encourage further research into whether crustaceans have the neurological structure that could produce a pain response.
Other scientists have dismissed the findings, saying that they do not prove conclusively that the prawns' reaction is a response to pain.
Lynne Sneddon at the University of Liverpool told the New Scientist that "shrimps do not have a recognisable brain" and are incapable of feeling pain.
"You could argue the shrimp is simply trying to clean the antenna rather than showing a pain response," she added.
Richard Chapman at the University of Utah's Pain Research Centre agreed, saying: "Even a single-cell organism can detect a threatening chemical gradient and retreat from it. But this is not sensing pain."