A study published in Royal Society Open Science suggests that parasites can promote cannibalism in animals if the latter one is a freshwater shrimp from Northern Ireland.

The shrimp belonging to the species Gammarus duebeni can eat each other even when they are not infected with the parasite. In this case, the parasite is Pleistophora mulleri. The researchers said that the infected shrimp has more chances to eat each other and it also makes them more voracious.

Alison Dunn from the University of Leeds said the parasite settles in the muscles of the shrimp. This act makes the shrimps to be not active enough to catch prey from other species. Therefore, these sick shrimps are not left with any other option to survive and they eat smaller shrimps.

“Cannibalism for the shrimp, unlike in humans, is a significant source of food even in uninfected animals. It seems unlikely that a parasite would be under evolutionary pressure to influence cannibalism in humans”, said Dunn.

Experts said that more they come to know about parasites the scarier they become. Lately, a team of biologists found that parasites can make animals more prone to the act of cannibalism.

The research was focused majorly on a specific type of shrimp, which is already known for some cannibalistic tendencies. The researchers also found that the parasite encourages the adult shrimp to eat their young.

Mandy Bunke from the University of Leeds thinks that the increased demand from food by the parasites might be encouraging the shrimp to show more acts of cannibalistic. The researchers reached at the above given conclusion after carrying out an experiment.

They collected shrimps from the Downhill River near County Antrim, Northern Ireland and divided them into infected and uninfected groups. The researchers then introduced young shrimps into the tanks of both the groups.

The researchers noted that infected adult shrimp went to eat the young at much faster rate than uninfected.