How butterflies self-medicate 1

0:11So infectious diseases, right?Infectious diseases are still the main
causeof human suffering and death around the world.Every year, millions
of people die of diseases such as T.B., malaria, HIV,around the world and
even in the United States.Every year, thousands of Americans die of
seasonal flu.

0:28Now of course, humans, we are creative. Right?We have come up with
ways to protect ourselves against these diseases.We have drugs and
vaccines.And we're conscious -- we learn from our experiencesand come up
with creative solutions.We used to think we're alone in this, but now we
know we're not.We're not the only medical doctors.Now we know that there's
a lot of animals out there that can do it too.Most famous, perhaps,
chimpanzees.Not so much different from us,they can use plants to treat
their intestinal parasites.But the last few decades have shown us that
other animals can do it too:elephants, porcupines, sheep, goats, you name
it.And even more interesting than that is that recent discoveries are
telling usthat insects and other little animals with smaller brains can
use medication too.

1:10The problem with infectious diseases, as we all know,is that pathogens
continue to evolve,and a lot of the drugs that we have developedare losing
their efficacy.And therefore, there is this great need to find new ways
to discover drugsthat we can use against our diseases.

1:25Now, I think that we should look at these animals,and we can learn
from them how to treat our own diseases.As a biologist, I have been
studying monarch butterflies for the last 10 years.Now, monarchs are
extremely famous for their spectacular migrationsfrom the U.S. and Canada
down to Mexico every year,where millions of them come together,but it's
not why I started studying them.I study monarchs because they get
sick.They get sick like you. They get sick like me.And I think what they
do can tell us a lot about drugsthat we can develop for humans.

1:56Now, the parasites that monarchs get infected withare called
ophryocystis elektroscirrha -- a mouthful.What they do is they produce
spores,millions of spores on the outside of the butterflythat are shown
as little specks in between the scales of the butterfly.And this is really
detrimental to the monarch.It shortens their lifespan,it reduces their
ability to fly,it can even kill them before they're even adults.Very
detrimental parasite.

2:20As part of my job, I spend a lot of time in the greenhouse growing
plants,and the reason for this is that monarchs are extremely picky
eaters.They only eat milkweed as larvae.Luckily, there are several
species of milkweed that they can use,and all these milkweeds have