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A. advanced B. automatically C. bay D. boost E. contained F. exposed G. interacted H. randomly I. reaction J. sprayed K. spread |
Change Behavior to Prevent Infection
During flu season, frequent hand-washing is a must, as is avoiding co-workers or friends who are sick. But we humans are not the only animals that change behavior to keep diseases at , and so do ants.
Nathalie of the University of Lausanne and her colleagues observed ants to see their to the presence of a pathogen (病原体). "With the nurses staying inside and taking care of the young, the worker ants are all outside of the nest to collect food and defend the territory." Worker ants are at greater risk of getting to diseases because they leave the safety of the nest. So the researchers a common fungus (真 菌) on a small group of worker ants and then followed their movements to see the way other ants reacted. "We marked all ants in the colony with individual labels, which isdetected and recorded using a tracking system."
After the infection, the nurse and worker ants stayed within their small group and less outside of their work group. The researchers also saw that worker ants spent more time outside of the nest. "They increase that amount by 15 percent so by quite a long large amount." The researchers measured the amount of fungus on each ant and saw that it was almost completely to the worker group. Some nurse ants and the Queen only had trace amounts of fungus' spores (孢 子) on them. The study indicated that the group behavior effectively stopped the of the fungus. Something that's quite interesting in these ants is that the very small amount of the spores cantheir natural defenses and protect them against later exposure to the same pathogen. It seems that in their ability to avoid infecting other members of the community, ants may be more than we are.
