Are commercial probiotics and prebiotics effective in the treatment and prevention of honeybee nosemosis C?

Abstract

The study was conducted to investigate the effect of Lactobacillus rhamnosus (a commercial probiotic) and inulin (a prebiotic) on the survival rates of honeybees infected and uninfected with Nosema ceranae, the level of phenoloxidase (PO) activity, the course of nosemosis, and the effect on the prevention of nosemosis development in bees. The cells of L. rhamnosus exhibited a high rate of survival in 56.56 % sugar syrup, which was used to feed the honeybees. Surprisingly, honeybees fed with sugar syrup supplemented with a commercial probiotic and a probiotic + prebiotic were more susceptible to N. ceranae infection, and their lifespan was much shorter. The number of microsporidian spores in the honeybees fed for 9 days prior to N. ceranae infection with a sugar syrup supplemented with a commercial probiotic was 25 times higher (970 million spores per one honeybee) than in a control group fed with pure sucrose syrup (38 million spores per one honeybee). PO activity reached its highest level in the hemolymph of this honeybee control group uninfected with N. ceranae. The addition of probiotics or both probiotics and prebiotics to the food of uninfected bees led to the ~2-fold decrease in the PO activity. The infection of honeybees with N. ceranae accompanied an almost 20-fold decrease in the PO level. The inulin supplemented solely at a concentration of 2 μg/mL was the only administrated factor which did not significantly affect honeybees’ survival, the PO activity, or the nosemosis infection level. In conclusion, the supplementation of honeybees’ diet with improperly selected probiotics or both probiotics and prebiotics does not prevent nosemosis development, can de-regulate insect immune systems, and may significantly increase bee mortality.

Re‐evaluation of insect melanogenesis research: Views from the dark side

“…In a search for protective countermeasures, the potential use of pre‐ and pro‐biotics to boost the immunity of beleaguered honeybee colonies is at an experimental stage, but this practice has precedents in aquaculture to support fish and shellfish immunity (Akhter, Wu, Memon, & Mohsin, ). However, Ptaszyńska, Borsuk, Zdybicka‐Barabas, Cytryńska, and Małek () presented a cautionary tale in their assessment of Lactobacillus rhamnosus (a commercial probiotic) on the survival rates of honeybees. The authors were surprised that their probiotic‐treated bees were more susceptible to infection and had shorter lifespans.…”

“…In bees infected with the microsporidian gut pathogen Nosema ceranae (a common affliction of honeybees worldwide), the effect of ingesting the probiotic was dramatic: a 20‐fold loss of PO activity. Administration of the prebiotic inulin had an innocuous effect but failed to confer any immune priming (Ptaszyńska et al., ). In administering probiotics, it is apparently vital to choose carefully; an incompatible bacterium might exclude or displace the normal gut microbiota and synergistically augment the immunosuppressive activity of pathogens.…”

Impact of vertebrate probiotics on honeybee yeast microbiota and on the course of nosemosis

“…infection has a similarly devastating effect on honeybees' intestines, which nowadays has been thoroughly studied by many researches (e.g. [13][14][15][30][31][32].…”

Deleterious Interaction Between Honeybees (Apis mellifera) and its Microsporidian Intracellular Parasite Nosema ceranae Was Mitigated by Administrating Either Endogenous or Allochthonous Gut Microbiota Strains

“…Levucell R SB (Saccharomyces cerevisiae boulardii) is used for monogastrics (swine and chicken) to improve growth performance, gut histology (Le Bon et al, 2010), decrease carriage of foodborne pathogens (Mountzouris et al, 2015) and improve immunity response (Collier et al, 2011). Moreover, other studies showed positive impact of commercial probiotic on bee host (Kazimierczak-Baryczko and Szymas, 2006;Ptaszynska et al, 2016). Consequently, we decided to test the impact on honey bee health of two commercial strains, Bactocell R and Levucell R SB that showed beneficial effects on other animals.…”

“…The motivation of this study is that probiotic curating strategies based on broad range commercial probiotic strains such as acid bacteria commercial strains such as L. rhamnosus and Lactobacillus sp. were not able to prevent nosemosis, and disrupted the honeybee immune system (Andrearczyk et al, 2014;Ptaszynska et al, 2016). Moreover, Andrearczyk et al (2014) observed an increase of Nosema spp.…”