Abstract
The study was conducted to investigate the effect of Lactobacillus rhamnosus (a commercial probiotic) and inulin (a prebiotic) on the survival rates of honeybees infected and uninfected with Nosema ceranae, the level of phenoloxidase (PO) activity, the course of nosemosis, and the effect on the prevention of nosemosis development in bees. The cells of L. rhamnosus exhibited a high rate of survival in 56.56 % sugar syrup, which was used to feed the honeybees. Surprisingly, honeybees fed with sugar syrup supplemented with a commercial probiotic and a probiotic + prebiotic were more susceptible to N. ceranae infection, and their lifespan was much shorter. The number of microsporidian spores in the honeybees fed for 9 days prior to N. ceranae infection with a sugar syrup supplemented with a commercial probiotic was 25 times higher (970 million spores per one honeybee) than in a control group fed with pure sucrose syrup (38 million spores per one honeybee). PO activity reached its highest level in the hemolymph of this honeybee control group uninfected with N. ceranae. The addition of probiotics or both probiotics and prebiotics to the food of uninfected bees led to the ~2-fold decrease in the PO activity. The infection of honeybees with N. ceranae accompanied an almost 20-fold decrease in the PO level. The inulin supplemented solely at a concentration of 2 μg/mL was the only administrated factor which did not significantly affect honeybees’ survival, the PO activity, or the nosemosis infection level. In conclusion, the supplementation of honeybees’ diet with improperly selected probiotics or both probiotics and prebiotics does not prevent nosemosis development, can de-regulate insect immune systems, and may significantly increase bee mortality.
Highlights
All members of the Animalia kingdom, including humans, have helpful symbiotic microbiota which are extremely important for the proper functioning of the gastrointestinal tract
In variant C, to check whether the supplementation of honeybee diets with commercial probiotic and/or prebiotic does protect a host against nosemosis, honeybees from the third day after emerging until the end of the experiment were fed with a sugar-water syrup supplemented with probiotics and/or prebiotics, and after nine days of diet supplementation, these bees were infected with N. ceranae (Fig. 1)
Indigenous gut bacterial flora with the dominant role of lactic acid bacteria plays an important role in the protection of bees and other insects against colonization by pathogens and in the control of the growth of undesirable microorganisms (Jack et al 1995; Wilson et al 2005; Audisio et al 2011)
Summary
All members of the Animalia kingdom, including humans, have helpful symbiotic microbiota which are extremely important for the proper functioning of the gastrointestinal tract These symbiotic microorganisms are responsible for the fermentation of carbohydrates as well as the production of some vitamins and amino acids that their hosts need. Prebiotics which are non-digestible fiber compounds cause specific changes, both to the composition and/or activity of gastrointestinal microflora, and confer benefits upon their hosts’ well-being and health (Roberfroid 2007) One such prebiotic is inulin, a linear chain of (2-1)-linked β-d-fructosyl units, which selectively promotes the growth and activity of bacteria from the genus Bifidobacterium that are beneficial for human and animal health (Cummings et al 2001; Urías-Silvas et al 2008). We decided to study the effect on honeybee health of L. rhamnosus, which plays a predominant role in the probiotics market (Douillard et al 2013), and of inulin, a well-known prebiotic, (Slavin 2013), by analyzing PO activity, as well as the role of these supplements on the treatment and the prevention of the nosemosis in honeybees
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