Onset of foraging and lifespan of Africanized honey bees (Apis mellifera) infected with different levels of Nosema ceranae spores in Neotropical Mexico

Abstract

Nosema ceranae is a microsporidium pathogen widely spread around the world. Negative effects on foraging behavior and longevity of EHB colonies have been associated with this pathogen as well as possible population losses, but its effects have not been studied in tropical adapted honey bees. We studied the interaction between this pathogen and Africanized honey bees (AHB) in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico where N. ceranae has only been detected since 2008. Non-infected and artificially infected workers with two different spore concentrations were introduced in observation hives to evaluate the onset and duration of foraging and longevity. The results showed precocious foraging, a reduction of the duration of foraging and a decrease in the longevity of infected bees compared with non-infected ones. However, the results indicate that although negative effects can be caused by N. ceranae in AHB, these were of a moderate magnitude compared with similar reports on EHB in temperate areas. Further research is necessary to evaluate the long-term effect of N. ceranae on AHBs in relation to colony dynamics to better understand the absence of significant colony losses associated with this pathogen in tropical and subtropical Mexico.Nosema ceranae / foraging behavior / longevity / Nosemosis / Africanized bees

Age and Method of Inoculation Influence the Infection of Worker Honey Bees (Apis mellifera) by Nosema ceranae

“…It is commonly accepted that the older forager bees in hives have the highest frequency and most intense infection [45,46,95,96], which is thought to provoke an acceleration of foraging behavior in bees infected by N. ceranae [32][33][34]58,97]. However, given the greater susceptibility of younger worker bees evident in this study, it is possible that various strategies may be employed in the super-organism to reduce contamination by Nosema spp.…”

“…All infections took place after bees were starved for 2 h and anesthetized by a 90 sec exposure to CO 2 for easy manipulation. Regardless of the method of infection, all the bees were inoculated with 114,000 N. ceranae spores to promote rapid multiplication such that it could be detected in the breeding conditions employed [25,33,40,47,48,52,[61][62][63][64]].…”

“…By exploiting the host cell's machinery to obtain resources, N. ceranae infection affects vital functions and modifies the host's immune response, ultimately causing cell lysis [21] and digestive disorders, provoking changes in vital functions and modifying the host's immune response, and significantly compromising the survival of the infected bee [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. This pathogen also affects aspects of honey bee neurobiology, such as olfaction, learning and memory [30], and the orientation and homing skills of workers [31], accelerating bee aging and their related tasks [32][33][34].…”

The Process and Outcome of the Africanization of Honey Bees in Mexico: Lessons and Future Directions

“…More research is thus needed to clarify the issue of potential pathogen spillover between different bee species and other pollinators. AHBs seem to be also tolerant to other parasites that are damaging to EHBs, such as Nosema ceranae (Fleites-Ayil et al, 2018), and this microsporidian has also been found to multiply in M. colimana, an endemic stingless bee from Jalisco, Mexico (Macías-Macías et al, 2020). However, not much more is known about the potential virulence of honey bee pathogens in native bees.…”

Nosema ceranae causes cellular immunosuppression and interacts with thiamethoxam to increase mortality in the stingless bee Melipona colimana

“…N. ceranae infections may reduce the lifespan and colony populations of honey bees 9 and may also affect their physiology and behavior 10 . For example, infected bees become precocious foragers and their homing and foraging ability are reduced compared with non-infected bees 11 – 15 , which potentially compromises colony fitness by reducing the collection of food resources. N. ceranae may also suppress humoral immune responses in honey bees 16 – 20 or may trigger them in certain cases 20 – 22 .…”