They can. Not the same diseases as us, given the anatomical differences (many insects don’t even have blood and instead have a compound named hemolymph circulating in their bodies), but it’s possible. Insects can develop cancer, be infected with and spread disease, and some can even be parasitized themselves (the wasp that lays eggs inside caterpillars is one of the more famous examples)
Generally speaking no. Mostly because their lives are typically very short anywhere from months to a year. Not much time to mutate. It is also probably the case were an insect to get cancer it would be eaten in short order so they would be hard to find in the environment.
In artificial situations in a lab irradiating bugs might be able to cause enough mutations for cancer within their short life times, so it is not impossible I believe. But I can only find one very old paper suggesting cancer naturally occurring in insects and even then their conclusion was that it is not clear if it is actually cancer.
This is a confirmed case of a man who got “worm-cancer” essentially he was immunocompromised. His, poor lucked, intestinal neighbor developed cancer and the malignant cells shed and spread to him such that he developed his own cancer from it. Just poor luck all around here really but is entirely possible
Bugs are particularly the victims of a bacteria called Wolbachia. Wolbachia is the most common bacterial infection on the planet, infecting roughly ~40-50% of all arthropod species and parasitic worms. It infects by passing from a female to her young. Their struggle against it has actually shaped the evolution of multiple insect species because it manipulates the way they reproduce through various means like killing only males, turning males into females, or making infected females more fertile. Some species of worms even now have to be infected with it to survive and reproduce – which we know because treating them with drugs that can only kill the Wolbachia treats the worm infection.
I read this in a valley girl voice because of the unneeded ‘like,’ in the title. Sure, life so sorts of life life gets abnormalities and stuff. They usually just like die or whatever due to natural selection or some junk like that so we don’t see their existence that often. Ew, gross, I know right?!
There have been a number of studies concerning cockroaches and their ability to fight diseases including cancer. I know someone at Colorado State that was involved in one a few years back and Ohio State also has done a few studies.
Comments
They can. Not the same diseases as us, given the anatomical differences (many insects don’t even have blood and instead have a compound named hemolymph circulating in their bodies), but it’s possible. Insects can develop cancer, be infected with and spread disease, and some can even be parasitized themselves (the wasp that lays eggs inside caterpillars is one of the more famous examples)
[removed]
[removed]
Generally speaking no. Mostly because their lives are typically very short anywhere from months to a year. Not much time to mutate. It is also probably the case were an insect to get cancer it would be eaten in short order so they would be hard to find in the environment.
In artificial situations in a lab irradiating bugs might be able to cause enough mutations for cancer within their short life times, so it is not impossible I believe. But I can only find one very old paper suggesting cancer naturally occurring in insects and even then their conclusion was that it is not clear if it is actually cancer.
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2015.18726
This is a confirmed case of a man who got “worm-cancer” essentially he was immunocompromised. His, poor lucked, intestinal neighbor developed cancer and the malignant cells shed and spread to him such that he developed his own cancer from it. Just poor luck all around here really but is entirely possible
Sure they can get diseases!
Bugs are particularly the victims of a bacteria called Wolbachia. Wolbachia is the most common bacterial infection on the planet, infecting roughly ~40-50% of all arthropod species and parasitic worms. It infects by passing from a female to her young. Their struggle against it has actually shaped the evolution of multiple insect species because it manipulates the way they reproduce through various means like killing only males, turning males into females, or making infected females more fertile. Some species of worms even now have to be infected with it to survive and reproduce – which we know because treating them with drugs that can only kill the Wolbachia treats the worm infection.
I read this in a valley girl voice because of the unneeded ‘like,’ in the title. Sure, life so sorts of life life gets abnormalities and stuff. They usually just like die or whatever due to natural selection or some junk like that so we don’t see their existence that often. Ew, gross, I know right?!
There have been a number of studies concerning cockroaches and their ability to fight diseases including cancer. I know someone at Colorado State that was involved in one a few years back and Ohio State also has done a few studies.