National Wildlife, August-September 2020 edition has an article on ants, in their "News of the Wild" by Mark Wexler.
It tells of black garden ants using social distancing to combat outbreaks of infectious disease. Workers in ants' colonies are divided into nurses, which care for inside the nest, and foragers, which collect food outside and are the ones who pick up pathogens.
Swiss and Austrian scientists found that when foragers are exposed to a disease-causing fungus, they stay away from the nest, decreasing contact with other ants. The nurses, meanwhile move the brood deeper inside the nest to protect the larvae.
The scientists don't know how the ants detect infection but they do. The article closes with: "I think we could learn from the social insects about ways to decrease transmission of disease at the scale of the population, says University of Lausanne biologist and lead author Nathalie Stroeymeyt.
Swiss and Austrian scientists found that when foragers are exposed to a disease-causing fungus, they stay away from the nest, decreasing contact with other ants. The nurses, meanwhile move the brood deeper inside the nest to protect the larvae.
The scientists don't know how the ants detect infection but they do. The article closes with: "I think we could learn from the social insects about ways to decrease transmission of disease at the scale of the population, says University of Lausanne biologist and lead author Nathalie Stroeymeyt.
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