Flies in the Face of Disease

Poster for Dorothy Gennard
Poster for Dorothy Gennard

Blue bottles, green bottles and house flies are usually a source of annoyance at picnics and barbecues and considered a ‘bad thing’. In food shops they are excluded in order to prevent the spread of disease. However in their larval stage the maggots of blowflies have been found to be valuable sources of alternative disease control especially for such conditions as MRSA. They are applied either directly to the wound or within containers which allow only the excreation/secreations to be in contact with the body.

This talk will examine some of the background to the use of maggot therapy, its public perception and will outline the state of research, particularly that which has been carried out at the University of Lincoln to explore the options for the use of insects to control disease in the face of increased resistance of some microorganism to the current arsenal of drugs.

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