Abstract
Nosema ceranae is a large contributing factor to the most recent decline in honey bee health worldwide. Developing new alternative treatments against N. ceranae is particularly pressing because there are few treatment options available and therefore the risk of increased antibiotic resistance is quite high. Recently, natural products have demonstrated to be a promising avenue for finding new effective treatments against N. ceranae. We evaluated the effects of propolis extract of stingless bee, Tetrigona apicalis and chito-oligosaccharide (COS) on giant honey bees, Apis dorsata, experimentally infected with N. ceranae to determine if these treatments could improve the health of the infected individuals. Newly emerged Nosema-free bees were individually inoculated with 106N. ceranae spores per bee. We fed infected and control bees the following treatments consisting of 0%, 50%, propolis extracts, 0 ppm and 0.5 ppm COS in honey solution (w/v). Propolis extracts and COS caused a significant increase in trehalose levels in hemolymph, protein contents, survival rates and acini diameters of the hypopharyngeal glands in infected bees. Our results suggest that propolis and COS could improve the health of infected bees. Further research is needed to determine the underlying mechanisms responsible for the improved health of the infected bees.
Highlights
Honey bees play a vital role in agricultural crop production and ecosystem stability due to their pollination services [1,2,3,4,5,6]
Levels any treatment had the lowest hemolymph trehalose levels on day 14 p.i. compared to all other treatment groups
The highest levels of hemolymph trehalose were found in uninfected bees levels on day 14 p.i. compared to all other treatment groups (χ2 = 34.52, df = 3, p < 0.0001, treated with propolis extract, control bees bees (CO)-50P (273.2 ± 6.69 μg/bee) followed by the control group, Figure 1)
Summary
Honey bees play a vital role in agricultural crop production and ecosystem stability due to their pollination services [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Despite their importance there has been a global decline in bee health around the world at unsustainable rates [7,8,9]. Nosema disease or nosemosis is one of the most widespread parasitic infections of adult honey bees and has been implicated to play a major role in the most recent global bee health decline [12,13,14]. N. ceranae primarily lives and reproduces in the gut lining which is likely the cause for the poor nutrient absorption in infected bees [25,26]
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