There are various factors that devastate year after year the honey bee colonies, according to beekeepers and scientists. The increase in the use of pesticides, the disappearance of their natural spaces, climate change and the emergence of bacteria are killing these species and, with it, the threat and the possible destruction of agriculture and biodiversity.
For this reason the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved the use of the first vaccine for honey bees (key bee colonies for food pollination) as a sort of “immune weapon” against the diseases to which these hymenoptera insects are exposed.
immunity for life
The USDA’s goal is by introducing an inactive version of the disease into the newly hatched larvaeto ensure the permanent immunity of honey bees against the larvae of the Paenibacillus bacterium, which causes the American foulbrooda serious disease that can weaken and kill hives.
Now there is no cure for the diseasethan in some parts of the United States it was found in a quarter of the hiveswhich requires beekeepers to destroy and burn infected colonies and administer antibiotics to prevent further spread.
Protection of bees and food
According to The Guardian, the USDA has granted a conditional license to apply a vaccine created by Health of street animals, a US biotechnology company, to help protect bees from American foulbrood. The inoculation will be initially available to commercial beekeepers.
“Our vaccine is a breakthrough in bee protection,” said Annette Kleiser, CEO of Dalan Animal Health. “We are ready for change the way we care for insectsimpacting food production on a global scale”.
Vaccine performance
The inoculation works by incorporating some of the bacteria into the royal jelly which feed the bees workers to the queen, who then ingests them and sends part of the vaccine into the ovaries. Developing bee larvae acquire immunity to the plague as they hatch, and Dalan’s studies suggest this will reduce death rates from the disease, reports The Guardian.
“In a perfect scenario, queens could be given a cocktail inside a queen candy — the soft, mushy sugar that queen bees eat in transit,” said Keith Delaplane, an entomologist at the University of Georgia. “Queen breeders may advertise fully vaccinated queens”.
American foulbrood originated in the United States and has since spread throughout the world. Dalan said the breakthrough could be used to find vaccines for other bee-related diseaseslike the european version of plague.
