A U.S. conservationist group is launching a Change.org campaign to ban the use of shark liver oil, aka squalene, for COVID-19 vaccines. Squalene is used as an adjuvant to boost the efficacy of vaccines. Conservationists believe that continued use of shark oil will devastate the shark population, which is being harvested at the rate of more than 3 million a year.
Shark Allies says there are good, alternative sources for squalene — and biotechnology company Amyris Inc. says it has the answer. October 1, 2020, Amyris introduced its sugarcane-derived squalene as an effective alternative.
However, sharks and their livers aren’t the only marine life that are being sacrificed for vaccines. Horseshoe crabs are also harvested at the rate of a half-million a year, and wildlife preservationists are just as worried about these crabs, which are sought for their blood, as they are about the sharks. The crabs’ blood contains an unusual property that detects endotoxins, which can contaminate the vaccines.
“All pharmaceutical companies around the world rely on these crabs. When you think about it, your mind is boggled by the reliance that we have on this primitive creature,” Barbara Brummer, state director for The Nature Conservancy in New Jersey, told National Geographic. An average of 13% of the crabs are then sold as bait to fishermen. Even though the rest are returned to the ocean, conservationists say many still die.
SOURCES:
Independent October 6, 2020
PR Newswire October 1, 2020
National Geographic July 6, 2020