Prediction of Arsenic and Cadmium Intoxication Cases from Lucilia Sericata (Meigen, 1826) [Diptera: Calliphoridae] Larvae by ICP-MS

Aim: This study aimed to develop and validate an Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS)-based analytical method for detecting arsenic (As) and cadmium (Cd) in Lucilia sericata (Meigen, 1826) larvae fed on contaminated liver tissue and to evaluate the relationship between element concentrations in the feeding media and larvae.Method: Chicken liver-based media spiked with different As and Cd concentrations were inoculated with approximately 100 L. sericata eggs and incubated for three days until the third instar stage. Larvae were digested with nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide, then analyzed by ICP-MS. Matrix-matched calibration curves were prepared from blank larvae, and method performance was assessed for linearity, limit of detection (LOD), limit of quantification (LOQ), recovery, and intra- and inter-day reproducibility.Results: Matrix-matched calibration curves were linear in the range of 1–20 ng/mL for both elements. Recovery values ranged from 94.33% to 107.38% for As and from 97.98% to 108.16% for Cd. Intra-day relative standard deviation values were 3.46–8.51% for As and 2.22–10.36% for Cd. Larvae exposed to As and Cd showed shorter average lengths than the blank group. The correlation coefficients between element concentrations in the feeding media and larvae were 0.677 for As and 0.902 for Cd.Conclusion: The developed ICP-MS method provided accurate and reproducible detection of As and Cd in L. sericata larvae. These findings suggest that larval elemental analysis may provide useful toxicological information in forensic investigations, particularly when conventional biological matrices are unavailable in suspected post-mortem poisoning cases.