On the Effects of Artificial Feeding on Bee Colony Dynamics: A Mathematical Model

Paiva, Juliana Pereira Lisboa Mohallem; Paiva, Henrique Mohallem; Espósito, Elisa; Morais, M. M.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0167054

Cited by 20 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 20 publications

(44 reference statements)

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“…It is needed for brood rearing and for the satisfactory development of adult bees (Crailsheim 1990; Roulston and Cane 2000;Hoover et al 2006). During times of pollen dearth, pollen reserves in the combs and protein reserves in bees are rapidly expended (Morais et al 2013b;Paiva et al 2016). Consequently, artificial supplementation with protein diets has been of extreme importance for colony maintenance and development (Morais et al 2013a) and for maintaining colony strength for pollination services and honey production (Herbert Jr, 1992).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of ensiling on the quality of protein supplements for honey bees Apis mellifera

et al. 2019

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We developed a nutritious, palatable, and attractive fermented diet as supplementary food for honey bees (Apis mellifera) during periods of natural food scarcity. Two types of commercial silage inoculants were tested; bacteria and a mix of bacteria and fungi were used to ferment a protein-based feed for 7, 14, or 28 days. The positive control consisted of beebread and the negative controls were sucrose solution 50%, w /v) and the unfermented protein diet. These feeds were offered, 4 g each, along with sucrose solution ad libitum, to 60 worker bees confined in plastic cages (seven replicates, 7 days). A pool of 20 bees/cage was collected on the first day (day 0) and on the 7th day of the experiment, for protein quantification by the Bradford method and for the electrophoretic profile of the proteins by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The diets fermented for 7 days were the most consumed when compared with unfermented protein diet and with beebread. All the bees that ate the fermented feeds (except for the 28-day fermentation period) presented higher titers of protein in the hemolymph when compared with the bees that did not consume any protein food (negative control and day 0). The electrophoretic analysis presented a protein profile compatible with good protein expression in the hemolymph of the bees that consumed the fermented feeds, in comparison with bees that had no access to a protein diet. Consequently, we conclude that fermenting protein supplements with silage inoculants is a viable alternative for producing protein diets that are nutritious and palatable for honey bees.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of ensiling on the quality of protein supplements for honey bees Apis mellifera

et al. 2019

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“…Thus, nutritional stress caused by food shortages or the availability of foods of only low nutritional value may lead to a reduction in the metabolic activity of the bees (Crailsheim 1990; Wang et al 2016). It has also been observed that whenthere is little available natural food, there are reductions in the number of worker bees in the hive, queen’s layingand survival rates of individuals, and increases in escape or abandonment rates (Paiva et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Different energetic diets affect the maintenance of Apis mellifera L. colonies during off-season

Oliveira

Kadri²,

Benaglia³

et al. 2019

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The aim of this study wasto evaluate the best energetic foodforuse in the 21 maintenance of honey bee colonies during the off-season. To do this, 20Apis mellifera 22 beehives were used(with five beehives per treatment): CTL,control (without feeding); 23 SJ,sugarcane juice; SS,sugar syrup; and IS,inverted sugar. We evaluated the food 24 consumption, population development, and physiological state (expression of 25 vitellogenin and hexamerin 70agenes)of eachcolony.The results showed that the 26 supplementation of colonieswith sugar syrup resulted in an intermediateconsumption 27 and thebetter development of the colony.In addition, this diet ensured that the colonies 28 were in a good physiological state,as beesfed this diet presentedthe highest relative 29 expression levels of vitellogenin and hexamerin 70ameasuredamong all thediets 30 tested.Therefore, sugar syrup was concluded to be the best artificial energetic food for 31 use in thesupplementation of honey bee colonies during the off-season. 32

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“…However, the nutritional value of these commercial diets is unclear, as they performed similarly to pollen in one study [ 32 ], but were nutritionally poor or unpalatable in other studies [ 33 – 38 ]. Also, the long-term effectiveness of these diets on the colony health is unknown [ 11 ], prompting predictive efforts through mathematical modeling [ 39 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transcriptional response of honey bee (Apis mellifera) to differential nutritional status and Nosema infection

2018

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BackgroundBees are confronting several environmental challenges, including the intermingled effects of malnutrition and disease. Intuitively, pollen is the healthiest nutritional choice, however, commercial substitutes, such as Bee-Pro and MegaBee, are widely used. Herein we examined how feeding natural and artificial diets shapes transcription in the abdomen of the honey bee, and how transcription shifts in combination with Nosema parasitism.ResultsGene ontology enrichment revealed that, compared with poor diet (carbohydrates [C]), bees fed pollen (P > C), Bee-Pro (B > C), and MegaBee (M > C) showed a broad upregulation of metabolic processes, especially lipids; however, pollen feeding promoted more functions, and superior proteolysis. The superiority of the pollen diet was also evident through the remarkable overexpression of vitellogenin in bees fed pollen instead of MegaBee or Bee-Pro. Upregulation of bioprocesses under carbohydrates feeding compared to pollen (C > P) provided a clear poor nutritional status, uncovering stark expression changes that were slight or absent relatively to Bee-Pro (C > B) or MegaBee (C > M). Poor diet feeding (C > P) induced starvation response genes and hippo signaling pathway, while it repressed growth through different mechanisms. Carbohydrate feeding (C > P) also elicited ‘adult behavior’, and developmental processes suggesting transition to foraging. Finally, it altered the ‘circadian rhythm’, reflecting the role of this mechanism in the adaptation to nutritional stress in mammals.Nosema-infected bees fed pollen compared to carbohydrates (PN > CN) upheld certain bioprocesses of uninfected bees (P > C). Poor nutritional status was more apparent against pollen (CN > PN) than Bee-Pro (CN > BN) or MegaBee (CN > MN). Nosema accentuated the effects of malnutrition since more starvation-response genes and stress response mechanisms were upregulated in CN > PN compared to C > P. The bioprocess ‘Macromolecular complex assembly’ was also enriched in CN > PN, and involved genes associated with human HIV and/or influenza, thus providing potential candidates for bee-Nosema interactions. Finally, the enzyme Duox emerged as essential for guts defense in bees, similarly to Drosophila.ConclusionsThese results provide evidence of the superior nutritional status of bees fed pollen instead of artificial substitutes in terms of overall health, even in the presence of a pathogen.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12864-018-5007-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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On the Effects of Artificial Feeding on Bee Colony Dynamics: A Mathematical Model

Cited by 20 publications

References 20 publications

Effects of ensiling on the quality of protein supplements for honey bees Apis mellifera

Effects of ensiling on the quality of protein supplements for honey bees Apis mellifera

Different energetic diets affect the maintenance of Apis mellifera L. colonies during off-season

Transcriptional response of honey bee (Apis mellifera) to differential nutritional status and Nosema infection

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