Matabele ants treat infected wounds with their own antibiotics

When a Matabele ant is injured in a termite raid, nestmates lick the wound, then apply antimicrobial secretions from a gland near the legs. Untreated wounds infected with a common soil pathogen kill about 90% of injured ants; treated ones mostly survive — the only known non-human species that treats infected wounds this precisely.

— Erik T. Frank et al., Targeted treatment of injured nestmates with antimicrobial compounds in an ant society — Nature Communications, 2023

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