Concept: Animal self-medication.
Source: Perspective in Science (April 12, 2013).
- Background: Self-medication (incl. prophylactic) can be administered to self, inter-generational (e.g. fruit flies lay preferentially in high ethanol foods following detection of parasitoid* wasps), social (e.g. anti-microbial resin incorporated by wood ants into nest). Criteria include that it must be costly (thus not employed when healthy/low-risk).
- An Implication: Expected to affect the evolution of the immune system by providing an (implicitly evolutionarily cheaper) alternative, possibly resulting in reduction/loss of a cellular/humoral response.
*PS. Parasitoid (noun) is an insect whose larvae live as parasites.
Thoughts: What does/would Homo sapien self-medication look like.
