Antimicrobial-Resistant Environmental Bacteria Isolated Using a Network of Honey Bee Colonies (Apis mellifera L. 1758)

Abstract

The phenomenon of antibiotic resistance stands as a paramount health challenge in the contemporary era. Within a One Health approach, it becomes crucial to effectively track the dissemination of antibiotic resistance, not only within humans and animals but also within the environment. To investigate the environment, the honey bee (Apis mellifera) has emerged as a prominent environmental bioindicator due to its social, behavioral, and morphological features. The objective of this study was to describe the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) patterns of bacterial isolates from the body surface and the gut of honey bees sampled from 33 colonies throughout the Emilia-Romagna region (Italy). A total of 608 strains were examined for 19 distinct antimicrobial compounds from various classes, and the results showed that more than 50% of the isolates for eight out of nine provinces showed characteristics of nonsusceptibility toward amoxicillin and penicillin, and, generally, 98.19% of isolated strains were considered AMR and 74.67% exhibited multidrug resistance (MDR) characteristics, more frequent in Gram-negative strains (87.74%) than in Gram-positive ones (60.34%). Additionally, a significant correlation with a lower prevalence of MDR bacteria was demonstrated for one province (Ferrara, odds ratio (OR) = 3.33, (1.67; 6.64), p = 0.0006 ). In conclusion, this study provides evidence for the utility of A. mellifera colonies as bioindicators for MDR bacteria, enabling their characterization and distribution at a geographical level. Additional investigations are required to further explore the potential role of honey bees as bioindicators for antimicrobial-resistant bacteria, particularly in terms of their association with environmental characteristics.

The Bee Gut Microbiota: Bridging Infective Agents Potential in the One Health Context

“…Also, in a previous study featuring the resistome of two species of bees (Apis mellifera and Apis cerana) [48], Gilliamella apicola was found to be among the major contributors to the resistance against beta-lactams, among others. Accordingly, antimicrobial susceptibility tests performed in a previous study reported that over 50% of the bacterial isolates demonstrated resistance to penicillin, among other antibiotic classes, suggesting the potential role of bees as the bioindicator of the circulating environmental AMR [49]. Moreover, honeybee exposure to veterinary drugs highlights modest changes in the microbiota architecture as compared to the qualitative rearrangements featured by increased AMR genes as detected by qPCR [50].…”