Aromatic plant essential oils for the control of blowflies in the production of dry-cured meat

The control of insect pest is an important aspect of industrial and home-made dry-cured meat. Salted meats such as dry-cured ham, bacon and beef are susceptible to insect and mite pests during the processing and aging. The fly Calliphora vomitoria (L.) (Calliphoridae), along with Piophila casei (L.) (Tephritidae), is the most important dipteran pest involved in the damage of home-cured meat products. In fact, C. vomitoria is known to be a vector of many foodborne pathogens and unintentional human ingestion of maggots by dry-cured meat consumption may lead to intestinal myiasis. In the cured meat production, C. vomitoria female oviposit on the meat immediately after the slaughtering, until the beginning of the aging. During the aging, newly emerged larvae, burrow deeply into the meat feeding on it and causing rots. As a consequence, the product is to be discarded with substantial economic losses. The aims of this study, were to assess the toxicity and oviposition deterrence of Allium sativum L., Salvia officinalis L., and Rosmarinus officinalis L. essential oils (EOs) against C. vomitoria. Results showed that the EOs exert a good toxicity against adults and that they are able to deter C. vomitoria oviposition on fresh meat starting from the dose of 0.5% (v/v). Overall, this study showed the potential of the tested EOs for their use in the prevention of the infestation/contaminations by the blowfly C. vomitoria in the home-made and industrial productions of dry-cured meats.