The global decline in bee populations, one of the largest pollinators with more than 20,000 species, could stabilize after the recent approval of a vaccine that gives hope in the management and control of pathologies in these insects.
A few weeks ago, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) licensed the first vaccine against the bacterium. Paenibacillus larvae The cause of “American foulbrood”, a very virulent and contagious disease of bacterial origin, present in almost 80% of the world’s hives and capable of killing entire hives, if not properly diagnosed.
A high percentage of plants fertilize thanks to the action of insects
It is “magnificent” news, says Raúl Rivas González, professor of Microbiology at the University of Salamanca, who points out that the vaccine is a tool to prevent the disease from spreading, but not to eliminate it: it is a type of environmental bacteria that it does not need to infect the bees to survive.
What the vaccine will do is protect commercial pollinators – some fifty species of bees are managed by man – from deadly diseases, in addition to reducing the financial and material losses of beekeepers, but above all facilitating the viability of the planet.
In his opinion, it is an important step, but the road is long, because unfortunately there are many diseases that affect bees, regrets Rivas, to specify that, for the moment, in Spain, its use has not begun because it has to be approved by Europe.
A world without these pollinators would be “unviable, there would be no future”, says the expert to explain that a critical percentage of plants are pollinated by insects and, if these did not exist, the population and diversity would drop alarmingly, with which means for the planet.
