Antibacterial Properties of Larval Secretions of the Blowfly, Lucilia sericata (Diptera: Calliphoridae)

Secretions aseptically collected from larvae or maggots of the green bottle fly Lucilia sericata (Meigen) (Diptera: Calliphoridae) exhibit antimicrobial activity along with other activities beneficial for wound healing. With the rise of multidrug-resistant bacteria. New approaches for identifying the active compounds responsible for the antimicrobial activity were examined. Five different pathogenic bacterial strains were used in this study, Three of them are gram positive bacteria, namely: Staphylococcus aureus, streptococcus sp, and proteus sp and two of them are gram negative bacteria, namely: E. coli. and Salmonella typhi. Considering the activity against organisms typically associated with clinical infection, may be a source of novel antibiotic-like compounds that may be used for infection control. Therefore, the aim of this study was to use a novel approach to investigate the output of secreted proteins from the maggots under conditions mimicking clinical treatments.Results revealed that the secretions aseptically markedly inhibit the growth of both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.