Lobsters shun diseased members of own species

When it comes to staying healthy, lobsters could teach humans a thing or two. Tiny Caribbean spiny lobsters are social creatures that live together in underwater caves. But scientists have shown that the creatures can sense a lethal virus in other lobsters, even before they show signs of sickness, and then avoid them.

‘‘This is the first record of healthy animals avoiding diseased members of their own species in the wild,’’ said Jeff Shields of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science in the US.

Shields and scientists at the Old Dominion University in Norfolk, who have been studying the PaV1 virus in lobsters for several years, noticed that infected lobsters rarely shared dens but they were not sure why. In experiments reported in Nature on Wednesday they discovered that lobsters stayed healthy by avoiding dens with sick lobsters.

They suspect the lobsters’ acute sense of smell gives them advanced warning of illness.