LSU Research Bites: Monitoring Crawfish Could Help Detect Dangerous Microplastic Pollution Sooner
December 17, 2025
You might have heard of microplastics – tiny fragments of plastic waste that are invading our environment. But did you know that our beloved crawfish are a canary in a coal mine, so to speak, for the negative impact of microplastics?
Crawfish are key players in aquatic ecosystems. Disruptions in crawfish health may trigger cascading effects, altering downstream food webs and ecosystem resilience. This makes crawfish a good “biomarker” or early warning signal for environmental microplastics.
Microplastics can be harmful on their own, but their combination with other chemical pollutants can produce multiplicative negative effects on aquatic life. One such pollutant is pyrogallol, a byproduct of manufacturing and food processing.
“Crayfish are a sentinel species—providing early warning signs of aquatic ecosystem health and pollutant interactions.”
— Mohamed Hamed, LSU postdoctoral researcher
Mohamed Hamed, a postdoctoral researcher at the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine, recently collaborated with researchers at Assiut University to study how microplastics and pyrogallol impact crawfish health.
The group found that the combined exposure to these two contaminants lowered crawfish’s ability to fight off infections and disease. Exposure impacted the crawfish’s immune, brain, and gut functions. Combined exposure to microplastics and pyrogallol caused more severe physiological damage than either pollutant alone.
“This outcome helps fill a major research gap,” Hamed said. “We should be monitoring the interactive effects of mixed contaminants in our environment, not only the effects of single pollutants.”
This study highlights that environmental pollutants rarely act alone. When they coexist, their effects can be far more damaging. By investigating the co-toxicity of microplastics and pyrogallol in red swamp crayfish, this research underscores how such interactions can disrupt the balance of freshwater ecosystems.
Read the study: Hamed, M., Said, R. E., Shaalan, W. M., Elbaghdady, H. A. M., & Sayed, A. E. D. H. (2025). Immunological, neurological, and intestinal changes in red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) exposed to the combined toxicity of Pyrogallol and microplastics. Marine pollution bulletin, 213, 117641. This is a top paper of 2025 from LSU. It has been cited over 12 times as of December 2025.
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