Beehold : the colony of the honeybee (Apis mellifera L) as a bio-sampler for pollutants and plant pathogens

Steen, J.J.M. van der

doi:10.18174/375348

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 141 publications

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“…In conclusion, the results of our study suggest that honey bees could very likely be used not only as bioindicators for the quality of the environment [77] but also as indicators of outbreaks of airborne pathogens, as previously indicated [35,45,78]. In fact, being accurate explorers of the ecosystem, they have the capacity to encounter a range of substances from the environment and bring them back to the hive, where they can be sampled for analysis.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

Droplet Digital RT-PCR (dd RT-PCR) Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Honey Bees and Honey Collected in Apiaries across the Campania Region

Mancusi,

Proroga,

Maiolino

et al. 2024

Viruses

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Coronaviruses (CoVs), a subfamily of Orthocoronavirinae, are viruses that sometimes present a zoonotic character. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for the recent outbreak of COVID-19, which, since its outbreak in 2019, has caused about 774,593,066 confirmed cases and 7,028,881 deaths. Aereosols are the main route of transmission among people; however, viral droplets can contaminate surfaces and fomites as well as particulate matter (PM) in suspensions of natural and human origin. Honey bees are well known bioindicators of the presence of pollutants and PMs in the environment as they can collect a great variety of substances during their foraging activities. The aim of this study was to evaluate the possible role of honey bees as bioindicators of the prevalence SARS-CoV-2. In this regard, 91 samples of honey bees and 6 of honey were collected from different apiaries of Campania region (Southern Italy) in four time periods from September 2020 to June 2022 and were analyzed with Droplet Digital RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 target genes Orf1b and N. The screening revealed the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in 12/91 in honey bee samples and in 2/6 honey samples. These results suggest that honey bees could also be used as indicators of outbreaks of airborne pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

Droplet Digital RT-PCR (dd RT-PCR) Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Honey Bees and Honey Collected in Apiaries across the Campania Region

Mancusi,

Proroga,

Maiolino

et al. 2024

Viruses

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“…Honeybees are exposed through an indirect or direct route to a great variety of potentially toxic chemicals of both natural and synthetic origin due to their foraging behaviour to collect nectar, pollen, water and propolis (Jones 1987;Devillers and Pham-Delegue 2002;Zhelyazkova 2012;Johnson 2015). As a result, the level of metal accumulated in bees and their products can indicate the cumulative level of air, water and soil contamination over bees' forage area (Rashed et al 2009;Badiou-Bénéteau et al 2013;Van der Steen et al 2012, 2015Bargańska et al 2016;Van der Steen 2016). Anthropogenic sources such as industrial plant emissions, non-ferrous metal, iron and steel production, civil heating system, waste disposal and incineration, vehicular traffic, fuel combustion and their additive, coal combustion are the main source of heavy metal exposure and accumulation in living organism.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Apis mellifera ligustica, Spinola 1806 as bioindicator for detecting environmental contamination: a preliminary study of heavy metal pollution in Trieste, Italy

Giglio

Ammendola

Battistella

et al. 2016

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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Honeybees have become important tools for the ecotoxicological assessment of soil, water and air metal contamination due to their extraordinary capacity to bioaccumulate toxic metals from the environment. The level of heavy metal pollution in the Trieste city was monitored using foraging bees of Apis mellifera ligustica from hives owned by beekeepers in two sites strategically located in the suburban industrial area and urban ones chosen as control. The metal concentration in foraging bees was determined by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. The chemical analysis has identified and quantified 11 trace elements accumulated in two different rank orders: Zn> Cu > Sr > Bi > Ni > Cr > Pb = Co > V > Cd > As in foraging bees from the suburban site and Zn > Cu > Sr > Cr > Ni > Bi > Co = V > Pb > As > Cd in bees from urban site. Data revealed concentrations of Cr and Cu significantly higher and concentration of Cd significantly lower in bees from urban sites. The spatial difference and magnitude order in heavy metal accumulation along the urban-suburban gradient are mainly related to the different anthropogenic activity within sampled sites and represent a risk for the human health of people living in the city. We discussed and compared results with the range of values reported in literature.

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“…Beebread is also a marketable product, but the hive must be opened to collect it with plastic straws. Two sampling techniques were newly developed or adopted for this project: Beehold tubes collect substances from bees' bodies as they pass through to enter the hive [5]. Newly developed APIStrips are impregnated with Tenax, which binds to substances circulating in the hive.…”

Section: Different Sampling Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

INSIGNIA: Beekeepers as citizen scientists investigate the environment of their honey bees

Brodschneider¹,

Gratzer²,

Carreck³

et al. 2021

Proceedings of Austrian Citizen Science Conference 2020 — PoS(ACSC2020)

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Beehold : the colony of the honeybee (Apis mellifera L) as a bio-sampler for pollutants and plant pathogens

Cited by 6 publications

References 141 publications

Droplet Digital RT-PCR (dd RT-PCR) Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Honey Bees and Honey Collected in Apiaries across the Campania Region

Droplet Digital RT-PCR (dd RT-PCR) Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Honey Bees and Honey Collected in Apiaries across the Campania Region

Apis mellifera ligustica, Spinola 1806 as bioindicator for detecting environmental contamination: a preliminary study of heavy metal pollution in Trieste, Italy

INSIGNIA: Beekeepers as citizen scientists investigate the environment of their honey bees

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