A new, practicable and economical cage design for experimental studies on small honey bee colonies

Sonter, Carolyn A.; Rader, Romina; Wilson, Susan C.

doi:10.1242/jeb.200998

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 47 publications

(68 reference statements)

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“…This included brood development, maintenance of colony temperature, worker and queen bee mortality, gastric health, and bee weight. Although the cage environment provided for successful brood development (Winston, 1987), as evidenced by successful brood development in the controls (Sonter et al, 2019), even at the lowest PFOS exposure concentration of 0.02 mg L −1 , the development from eggs to young adults ceased. Larval death was possibly due to nurse bees feeding the larvae PFOS‐contaminated food, rather than PFOS residue in the brood comb due to the short time period of exposure and use of noncontaminated frames (Wu‐Smart & Spivak, 2016; Zhu et al, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The specialized cage system (Sonter et al, 2019) used for this exposure trial was installed in a dedicated bay of the glasshouse complex at the University of New England, Armidale, NSW (Australia) (Supporting Information Figure ). Modifications to the cages and hive boxes to prevent PFOS cross‐contamination included removable covers on hive box lids, water feeders, floors, cage walls, and temperature monitors.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Biological and behavioral responses of European honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies to perfluorooctane sulfonate exposure

Sonter

Rader

Stevenson

et al. 2021

Integr Envir Assess & Manag

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Bees provide pollination services to managed and wild ecosystems but are threatened globally due to multiple stressors, including exposure to contaminants. Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) is a widely detected and persistent contaminant that accumulates and biomagnifies in food chains. In this exposure effect study, small whole colonies of Apis mellifera (1000 bees) were exposed to PFOS using a purpose‐built cage system over a 4‐week period. The PFOS exposure concentrations were provided to bees in sugar syrup at concentrations detected in the environment, ranging from 0 to 1.6 mg L−1. A range of biological and behavioral responses were monitored. Bee tissue, honey, and fecal matter were analyzed using isotope dilution combined with liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry adapted for bee and honey matrix analysis. Bee mortality increased significantly with PFOS exposure at 0.8 mg L−1 or greater, and brood development ceased entirely at 0.02 mg L−1 or greater. Colony activity, temperament, hive maintenance, and defense were adversely affected in all PFOS exposure treatments compared with the control, even at the lowest PFOS exposure of 0.02 mg L−1. Perfluorooctane sulfonate was detected in bee tissue with a mean bioaccumulation factor of 0.3, and it was also identified in honey and in feces collected from the hive cages. These findings provide the first evidence that PFOS exposure adversely affects honey bee colonies and may transfer to honey. With PFOS contaminating thousands of sites worldwide, our study has implications for exposed bee populations under natural conditions, pollination services, the honey industry, and human health. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2021;17:673–683. © 2021 SETAC

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological and behavioral responses of European honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies to perfluorooctane sulfonate exposure

Sonter

Rader

Stevenson

et al. 2021

Integr Envir Assess & Manag

Self Cite

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“…Here, the control mortality derived from the empirical data did not represent mortality experienced by bees within a natural colony when input to the model, leading to unrealistic levels of colony failure ( Figure S1). This discrepancy is expected because honey bees in controlled experiments, where bees are maintained outside the hive environment, are expected to show higher mortality than under normal conditions within the hive (Sonter et al, 2019). We accounted for this discrepancy by transforming our control and treatment bootstrapped data proportional with the baseline mortality in BEEHAVE.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long‐term effects of antibiotic treatments on honeybee colony fitness: A modelling approach

Bulson

Becher

McKinley

et al. 2020

Journal of Applied Ecology

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1. Gut microbiome disequilibrium is increasingly implicated in host fitness reductions, including for the economically important and disease-challenged western honey bee Apis mellifera. In laboratory experiments, the antibiotic tetracycline, which is used to prevent American Foulbrood Disease in countries including the US, elevates honey bee mortality by disturbing the microbiome. It is unclear, however, how elevated individual mortality affects colony-level fitness. 2. We used an agent-based model (BEEHAVE) and empirical data to assess colonylevel effects of antibiotic-induced worker bee mortality, by measuring colony size. We investigated the relationship between the duration that the antibiotic-induced mortality probability is imposed for and colony size. 3. We found that when simulating antibiotic-induced mortality of worker bees from just 60 days per year, up to a permanent effect, the colony is reduced such that tetracycline treatment would not meet the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) honey bee protection goals. When antibiotic mortality was imposed for the hypothetical minimal exposure time, which assumes that antibiotics only impact the bee's fitness during the recommended treatment period of 15 days in both spring and autumn, the colony fitness reduction was only marginally under the EFSA's threshold. 4. Synthesis and Applications. Modelling colony-level impacts of antibiotic treatment shows that individual honey bee worker mortality can lead to colony mortality. To assess the full impact, the persistence of antibiotic-induced mortality in honey bees must be determined experimentally, in vivo. We caution that as the domestication of new insect species increases, maintaining healthy gut microbiomes is of paramount importance to insect health and commercial productivity. The recommendation from this work is to limit prophylactic use of antibiotics and to not exceed recommended treatment strategies for domesticated insects. This is especially important for highly social insects as excess antibiotic use will likely decrease colony growth and an increase in colony mortality.

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Markerless tracking of bumblebee foraging allows for new metrics of bee behavior and demonstrations of increased foraging efficiency with experience

Warburton,

Jones

2023

Apidologie

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A new, practicable and economical cage design for experimental studies on small honey bee colonies

Cited by 4 publications

References 47 publications

Biological and behavioral responses of European honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies to perfluorooctane sulfonate exposure

Biological and behavioral responses of European honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies to perfluorooctane sulfonate exposure

Long‐term effects of antibiotic treatments on honeybee colony fitness: A modelling approach

Markerless tracking of bumblebee foraging allows for new metrics of bee behavior and demonstrations of increased foraging efficiency with experience

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