Social distance to stop the spread of COVID-19 may feel unnatural to us humans, but other animals intuitively do something similar, without the need for rules or regulations to keep them going. .
Staying away from others when you are sick is a natural result of animal disease. Even when people are feeling sick, the physical effects can confine us to our beds and indirectly keep us from meeting others with whom we may be infectious.
Unfortunately, our gender can often suppress that instinct as a result of the pressure to work or learn or communicate socially, putting our communities and us at risk. Asymptomatic infections from the SARS-CoV-2 virus can also make it harder to understand when we are putting others at risk.
New review in Science explores how six social animals, including ants, bats, lobsters, and bees, actively avoid or exclude each other to prevent contamination from polluting group dispersal – sometimes at great risk to the individual.
“Looking at non-human animals can tell us something about what we have to do as a society to do so that individuals can behave in ways that are sick that provide protection for themselves and for society as a whole, “explained biologist Dana Hawley of Virginia Tech.
Ants and termites are interesting examples because they can sometimes send warning signs to others in their community before they are even properly infected, as early as 15 minutes after being exposed to a pathogen.
When fungal spores become involved, for example, some species of termites immediately begin to animate to tell their nest friends that they need to be avoided or decorated for a big wedding. The latter option can, of course, show others around them, but it also helps to deal with the disease before it does too much damage.
On the other hand, ants with fungal infection can take themselves out of the nest within hours of being exposed. This is called active self-isolation because the ant changes its behavior directly in response to the potential illness.
This may seem altruistic at first, but since eusocial insects such as bees, ants and termites are closely related within their colonies, their ‘self’ genes live in others if successful in protection from disease, a concept known as “social protection”.
Vampire bats do something similar, albeit in a more tolerant way. When scientists inject bats with a small piece of gram-negative bacteria, the harmless substance triggers an immune response that causes the individual to participate in much less community-to-community maintenance, even although they still receive food in the form of blood from others and some maintain social contact.
“Tolerant social distance in vampire bats is a ‘byproduct’ of ill behavior,” says biologist Sebastian Stockmaier of the University of Texas, Austin.
“For example, sick vampire bats may be more lethal so that they can transfer energy to an expensive immune response. We have seen that this lethargy reduces contact with others and that sick vampire bats breed each other less. “
At other times it is the group that ditches the sick person. When a person is sick, for example, they have a different smell and appearance, which allows others to stay away.
“If you’re sitting on a plane and someone next to you is coughing, you may not be as likely to want to talk to them, or you may be following over to one side of the road. your seats, “Hawley explained.
“There are so many ways we change our behavior to reduce the risk of disease and we do it all the time without thinking because it is becoming increasingly heavy on us.”
Caribbean spiny lobsters bring similar things to their community. Healthy lobsters, for example, can leave the skin if others show signs of illness. This is a dangerous decision and not one that will be taken lightly because it exposes people to predators and loss of body protection. If the virus is deadly enough, however, it may be worth trading.
Bees are far more brutal in response to potential diseases. When good is a hive to all that matters, healthy bees are known to make sick people alone, sometimes dragging their peers out of the nest.
“Emergency bans have not been experimentally proven in mammals, although there is speculative evidence [in some primates], and emergency quarantine has occurred throughout human history and remains an important step for public health against pathogens such as Ebola and severe respiratory syndrome (SARS), ”the authors write.
In historical events of human disease, it is difficult to say to what extent self-isolation is voluntary or enforced by government regulations. Apparently, it’s probably a bit of both.
Looking at the animal kingdom as a whole, however, it appears that loneliness, avoidance, exclusion, and social distance throughout the group can have a significant impact on the extent to which the infection is spread.
There will always be disadvantages, the authors admit, such as the loss of the lobster cellar or contact with loved ones, but people’s responses can determine the costs and benefits to the best way to protect species going forward.
Early and prompt treatment of diseases is essential, especially to stop the pathogen from moving. However, once those days are long gone, social distance can still play an important role in saving lives going forward.
As the authors conclude, “lonely individuals” are not isolated individuals when it comes to controlling the spread of disease.
The review was published in Science.