Matabele Ants Recognize and Treat Infected Wounds with Self-Produced Antibiotics

The ants' sophisticated healthcare system reduces mortality rates by 90%, with potential implications for human medicine.

Matabele ants (Megaponera analis) have developed a sophisticated healthcare system, distinguishing between non-infected and infected wounds and treating the latter efficiently with antibiotics they produce themselves.
Chemical analyses have shown that the hydrocarbon profile of the ant cuticle changes as a result of a wound infection, a change that the ants are able to recognize and thus diagnose the infection status of injured nestmates.
For treatment, the ants apply antimicrobial compounds and proteins to the infected wounds, taken from the metapleural gland located on the side of their thorax. Its secretion contains 112 components, half of which have an antimicrobial or wound-healing effect.
The therapy is highly effective, reducing the mortality rate of infected individuals by 90 per cent.
Research is planned to explore wound care behaviors in other ant species and other social animals, and to identify and analyze the antibiotics used by Matabele ants. This could lead to the discovery of new antibiotics that could also be used in humans.