Grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation, CNCS-UEFISCDI, Project number PN-III-P1-1.1-PD-2019-0498, Contract number 140/2020.
The nosemosis prevention and honeybee’s colonies development using a probiotic product.
Nosemosis is one of the most serious diseases of adult honeybees occurring in nearly every country with beekeeping practices. The appearing of this disease is caused by the climate, for example the sudden variations of temperature, the long and cold winters, the inappropriate hygiene of the beehive, some associated diseases such as amoebiasis and the storage in the hive on winter period of the black honey. Studies demonstrated that the infection with Nosema spp. range from less than 1 to 100 percent, this disease reduces worker longevity by 22-44% which in turn reduces honey production and causes incomplete crop pollination. For this reason, the beekeepers use different products for prevent bee nosemosis. The most used antibiotic is fumagillin, which it is authorized in USA, but in EU is no longer available since January 1st, 2000. Risks related to the use of antibiotics for the control of honeybee diseases are persistence of the infection, reappearance of the disease and honey contamination (Directive 86/23/CE and further amendments). Thus, in EU countries no antibiotic is available for this disease, the prevention is based on use the medicinal herbs, which are more or less efficient.
However, current trends offer great importance to the effects that some probiotic products can have on honeybee’s colonies. Probiotics are beneficial bacteria which can lead to brood growth and reducing the total number of bacteria.
In this context, further research is needed to evaluate Apis mellifera microbiota and create a new probiotic product used in nosemosis prevention and honeybee’s colonies development.
We expect that our results will provide scientific evidence for understanding the geographical distribution of some Apis mellifera carpatica microbiota in Romania and the need to use a probiotic product on bee nosemosis infection and bee colonies development.