Towards the development of an index for the holistic assessment of the health status of a honey bee colony

Gilioli, Gianni; Sperandio, Giorgio; Hatjina, Fani; Simonetto, Anna

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.01.024

Cited by 14 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 33 publications

(32 reference statements)

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“…A healthy honeybee colony results from a complex interaction between external factors (availability of food resources, climate, species interactions) and internal colony factors (honeybee physiology, degree of pathogenic infestation, behavioural and social stability) (26)(27)(28). Recently, several attempts have been made to develop colony health indices from various types of approaches (29,30). Among them, genomic technologies, such as DNA metabarcoding and metagenomics, are becoming attractive methodologies for tackling this challenge thanks to the constant increase in sequenced genomes and the increasing affordability of next generation sequencing (31)(32)(33).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bee foraging preferences, microbiota and pathogens revealed by direct shotgun metagenomics of honey

Galanis

Vardakas

Reczko

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Honeybees (Apis mellifera) continue to succumb to human and environmental pressures despite their crucial role in providing essential ecosystem services. Owing to their foraging and honey production activities, honeybees form complex relationships with species across all domains, such as plants, viruses, bacteria (symbiotic and pathogenic), and other hive pests, making honey a valuable biomonitoring tool for assessing their ecological niche. Thus, the application of honey shotgun metagenomics (SM) has paved the way for a detailed description of the species honeybees interact with, in order to better assess the multiple factors governing their health. Here, we describe the implementation of optimized honey DNA extraction methodology coupled to direct shotgun metagenomics (Direct-SM) analysis, and to a computationally optimised and validated pipeline for taxonomic classification of species detected in honey. By comparing honey collected across 3 harvesting seasons in a stable apiary, we show that Direct-SM can describe the variability of sampled plant species, revealing honeybee behavioural adaptation. In addition, we reveal that Direct-SM can non-invasively capture the diversity of species comprising the core and non-core bacterial communities of the gut microbiome. Finally, we show that this methodology is applicable for the monitoring of pathogens and particularly for the biomonitoring varroa infestation. These results suggest that Direct-SM can accurately and comprehensively describe honeybee ecological niches and can be deployed to assess bee health in the field.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bee foraging preferences, microbiota and pathogens revealed by direct shotgun metagenomics of honey

Galanis

Vardakas

Reczko

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…Multiple causal factors are considered to contribute to colony losses: parasites and pathogens as the main candidates [ 3 , 7 ], exposure to pesticides [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ], diet quantity, quality and diversity [ 12 , 13 ], as well as unfavorable weather and forage circumstances. Moreover, the health status of honey bee colonies is highly influenced by the beekeeper’s management practices [ 14 , 15 ]. All of these factors affect honey bee colonies individually or in various combinations [ 16 ], possible causing severe disturbance of honey bee microbiota composition.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects on Some Therapeutical, Biochemical, and Immunological Parameters of Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Exposed to Probiotic Treatments, in Field and Laboratory Conditions

Gajger

Vlainić

Šoštarić

et al. 2020

Insects

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Several negative factors contribute to a decline in the number of insect pollinators. As a novel approach in therapy, we hypothesize that the EM® for bees could potentially have an important therapeutic and immunomodulatory effect on honey bee colonies. The aim of our study was to evaluate its impact on honey bees at the individual and colony level. This is the first appliance of the commercial probiotic mix EM® PROBIOTIC FOR BEES in honey bees as economically important social insects. The sugar syrup with 10% of probiotic was administered by spraying or feeding the honey bee colonies in the field conditions, in order to evaluate the infection levels with spores of Nosema spp. and colonies’ strength. Moreover, in laboratory-controlled conditions, in the hoarding cages, adult workers have been fed with sugar syrup supplemented with 2.5, 5, and 10% of EM® for bees for biochemical and immunological analyses of hemolymph, and with 5 and 10% for measuring the size of hypopharyngeal glands. It was found that following the EM® for bees administration the Nosema spp. spore counts in colonies were significantly reduced, and colonies’ strength was increased. The results at the individual level showed significant positive physiological changes in treated groups of adult bees, revealing at the same time a higher mortality rate when feeding sugar syrup supplemented with the probiotic.

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“…Furthermore, data and estimations provided might be useful for the development of realistic scenarios related to European beekeeping and provide a valid support for the development of modelling tools (e.g. honey bee health indexes and/or models on honey bee population dynamics) able to capture the influence of the beekeeper to a honey bee colony (Gilioli et al, 2018(Gilioli et al, , 2019. The conceptual framework that we developed is independent from the selection of the BMPs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beekeeping and honey bee colony health: A review and conceptualization of beekeeping management practices implemented in Europe

Sperandio

Simonetto

Carnesecchi

et al. 2019

Science of The Total Environment

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The beekeeper plays a key role in maintaining the health status of managed honey bee colonies and ensuring their productivity. However, a clear overview on the main actions carried out by beekeepers and their role for the successful management of honey bees is only partially addressed. In this study, we aim at providing: i) a generalized conceptual framework for the characterization of the Beekeeping Management Practices carried out by the European beekeepers and ii) the definition of their influence on the overall status of the honey bee colony. Six Beekeeping Management Practices were selected in this study: chemical control; replacement of combs with brood; replacement of combs with feed sources; supplementary feeding; change in the number of workers; beekeeper category and experience. Each Beekeeping Management Practice was characterized in relation to: i) the elements guiding their application, ii) the potential impacts on a honey bee colony and iii) the scenario-based variables that might influence their timing, frequency and/or efficiency. We performed an extensive literature review and an Expert Knowledge Elicitation procedure in order to estimate the uncertainty linked to some major parameters. In this paper, we successfully developed and applied a conceptual framework defining the actions

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Towards the development of an index for the holistic assessment of the health status of a honey bee colony

Cited by 14 publications

References 33 publications

Bee foraging preferences, microbiota and pathogens revealed by direct shotgun metagenomics of honey

Bee foraging preferences, microbiota and pathogens revealed by direct shotgun metagenomics of honey

Effects on Some Therapeutical, Biochemical, and Immunological Parameters of Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Exposed to Probiotic Treatments, in Field and Laboratory Conditions

Beekeeping and honey bee colony health: A review and conceptualization of beekeeping management practices implemented in Europe

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