Oysters have feelings too.
Neglecting them could have serious implications for their health, that of other sea animals and possibly our own, new research from France suggests 1 . And stressed oysters, the researchers find, are more susceptible to bacterial infection. They don't realize that oysters have these very complex responses to environmental stress. Stressed oysters, says Lacoste, could serve as a reservoir for animal and human diseases caused by bacteria belonging to the Vibrio group. Others of the Vibrio group, including the cholera bacterium V. cholerae , are rarely toxic to oysters, but cause human diseases.