The US Department of Agriculture has granted a conditional permit to biotechnology company Dalan Animal Health to commercialize the first vaccine specifically created to treat a honey bee disease (Bee honeya). The product that can now be used in a controlled manner (pending final approval) is an antibacterial vaccine intended to prevent American foulbrood, a deadly infection for bee larvae caused by the bacterium Paenibacillus larvae.
The new preventive treatment is specifically intended for the protection of queen bees and the permission granted has the character of a “conditional licence” because its “effectiveness and potency have not been fully demonstrated”, according to detailed the Dalan Animal Health company itself. In recent years, however, several field studies have been conducted demonstrating the safety and relatively high efficacy of treatment with the new antibacterial vaccine. One of these studies With positive results, it was put into practice in Guadalajara, with the participation of experts from the Apiculture Pathology Laboratory, Apiculture and Agro-Environmental Research Center (CIAPA), in Marchamalo.
Bee on the flower in the middle of winter.
The basic scientific research that has allowed the development and marketing of the new product has been conducted over the past six years by eexperts from the University of Helsinki (Finland). The first results of this research were published in 2018.
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promising product
The new vaccine contains inactivated elements of the bacteria P. larvae and is supplied mixed with royal jelly (a substance secreted by the hypopharyngeal glands on the head of young worker bees). Those responsible for developing the new product explain that when queen bees feed on this mixture, they ingest fragments of the vaccine which will give their offspring some immunity against the bacteria.
Annette Kleiser, executive director of Dalan Animal Health, is convinced that her vaccine “is a breakthrough in bee protection”. “We are committed to providing innovative solutions to protect our pollinators and promote sustainable agriculture. Global population growth and climate change will increase the importance of bee pollination to secure our food supply,” Kleises said in a statement. issued by the company.
Deadly, especially for queen larvae
. The American foulbrood is a disease present in beekeeping farms almost all over the world, especially in the countries of the temperate or subtropical zones; where it becomes a major cause of economic and population losses. The pathogen that causes the disease is the Paenibacillus larvae a bacillus (bacterium with an elongated cylindrical shape) deadly for the larvae but not for the adult bees, which involuntarily act as transmitters of the pathogen. “It’s worse than the European plague [causada por la bacteria Melissococcus pluton]as the population loss is evident, possibly losing all diseased colonies with consequent economic loss for the beekeeper,” according to the Friends of the Bees Foundation. The larva becomes infected by ingesting bee spores. P. larvae through adult bees. After 24-48 hours, the bacterium that has emerged overcomes the intestinal barrier of the larvae, infects the rest of the organism and causes its death; at the same time that it generates millions of new spores. Queen bee larvae are more susceptible to disease than worker bee larvae and drone bee larvae.
The company released an official statement saying the antibacterial vaccine “was developed by Dalan Animal Health and is manufactured by Diamond Animal Health (Des Moines, IA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Heska. Dalan Animal Health is headquartered in the Innovation Hub by the University of Georgia, Athens (USA) and announced that it will distribute the vaccine on a limited basis to commercial beekeepers in the USA this 2023.
generational immunity
The company promoting the new product details that
his vaccine “contains bacteria Paenibacillus larvae of whole dead cells, and is administered by mixing it with the queen’s food consumed by the worker bees. The worker bees incorporate the vaccine into royal jelly and then feed it to the queen. She swallows it and fragments of the vaccine are deposited in her ovaries. Having been exposed to the vaccine, the developing larvae have immunity when they hatch,” says the company. “Primary efficacy studies have indicated that oral vaccination of honey bees may reduce larval death associated with honey bee infections. American foulbrood caused by P. larvae . The vaccine is not a genetically modified organism and can be used in organic farming, according to the company.
