VACCINE DEVELOPED WHICH COULD HELP SAVE OUR PRECIOUS HONEY BEES
Bees are vital to agriculture around the world. Honey bees are the pollinators needed for one-third of America's agriculture. However, these tiny creatures face many risks, including climate change, habitat loss and disease. Finally, an important decision may appear for the latter. Scientists have developed a honey bee vaccine that is administered to the queen, which passes immunity to her offspring swarm against the devastating bacterial scourge known as American foulbrood.
Most bees live in hives headed by a queen. She lays larvae, which hatch and become her loyal subjects. However, American foulbrood can destroy this gentle ecosystem. Bacterial infection of the hive causes the larvae to turn brown and smell like rot. It can kill thousands of bees. Beekeepers must burn the dead and their hive to prevent spread. This devastation, along with the myriad other threats faced by bees, is having a major impact on the agricultural sector. Fortunately, this new vaccine has already passed the USDA's first round of approvals. So how do you vaccinate bees against this malignant infection? As scientists discovered in 2015, bees (which don't have antibodies like humans) can be immunised by a specific protein. Since the queen is the mother of the hive, feeding her food containing the dead bacterium Paenibacillus (which causes foulbrood) will affect her ovaries and immunity will be passed on to her offspring. The vaccine is placed in royal jelly, a sweet treat fed to queen bees. Beekeepers are ready to try this new solution.
Though this can be a brief fix, depending completely on antibiotics won't be the “forever” strategy to bee health. Annette Kleiser, leader govt of Dalan Animal Health which evolved the vaccine, known as it “a massive breakthrough.” She referred to to The New York Times, “Bees are farm animals and ought to have the equal current gear to take care of them and defend them that we've got for our chickens, cats, puppies and so on.” Bees deserve healthcare, and if policymakers be aware of the critical effect they've on meals and the economy, they could now no longer forget about the insects. While in addition approval of the vaccine is wanted earlier than it is able to hit the market, its preliminary approval is a massive step in the direction of saving the critical bees.