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Certain animal carcasses can become so quickly infected with dangerous bacteria that they pose a significant threat to human health 鈥� for example, pork and chicken. Yet soon they will become alive with fly maggots competing for protein. Why are the maggots immune to the bacteria and their toxins, and why can鈥檛 this be harnessed for human protection?

鈥� The evolutionary answer is that maggots are adapted to eat raw meat, whereas humans have adapted to eat cooked meat.

Maggots are better than we are at countering the toxins made by bacteria associated with raw chicken and pork, such as Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter, Yersinia enterocolitica and Staphylococcus aureus. In particular, insects produce an impressive suite of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) that act in the immune response against bacteria. This ability is necessary, given the maggots鈥� diet.

鈥淢aggots are better than humans at countering toxins produced by the bacteria in raw meat鈥�

Humans, in contrast, evolved to cook meat to make it more digestible. Cooking also kills harmful bacteria. Our immune systems are therefore relatively unprepared evolutionarily to deal with infection by these bacteria, and they usually make us sick.

The good news is that AMPs show promise as broad-spectrum antibiotics, even against multidrug-resistant bacteria.

Sam Buckton, Chipperfield, Hertfordshire, UK

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