They find a substance that can protect bees

We all know that we have to save the bees . And, although there are many reasons why they are decreasing (pesticides, killer wasps …), there is another threat to our favorite flying insects and it is a parasite called the Varroa mite . These small mites carry a series of viruses that, when transmitted to bees, can cause infections that cause deformities in the wings, paralysis, loss of coordination that keeps the hive running and, finally, mass death. These mites need bees to live, as they feed on larvae inside the hive and can reproduce little by little and end up with an entire colony.

This deadly virus that can kill bees or affect their ability to return to hives after foraging for food affects, as we see, bees throughout their life cycle. They can affect their memory, their wings – make them wrinkle or stunt in their growth – … So it is likely that the affected bees will die and their colony will collapse at some point due to lack of food. But in a new study published in the journal iScience , a team of researchers have shown that a cheap, natural chemical compound could prevent or reverse the effects of the virus on bees. Protect them.

In the experiments, bees that were fed the compound before becoming infected with the so-called “deformed wing virus” of the varroa parasite, or varroosis, were nine times more likely to survive the virus after five days; By monitoring the hives in real time, the scientists also showed that bees that were fed the compound were more likely to return to the hive at the end of a day of foraging.

“Pathogens are definitely a stressor for bees,” says Cheng-Kang Tang, entomologist and leader of the work. “But beekeepers don’t want to use pesticides because of food safety concerns. So we set out to find some compounds that can increase the strength of bees. “

What is the compound?

The researchers found that a simple plant-based compound, sodium butyrate (NaB), specifically, could be given to bees on a regular basis to strengthen the hive against an attack by the deformed wing virus. Sodium butyrate is a chemical compound made up of sodium, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen and can even be found in the human intestine when we eat dairy products and fiber.

To test it, experts from National Taiwan University and their team fed the bees sugar water mixed with NaB for a week before infecting them with the deformed wing virus. More than 90% of these bees remained alive after five days, while 90% of the infected bees that did not receive NaB died during the same period.

“Our findings show that feeding NaB to insects before exposure to the virus can counteract the negative impacts of the pathogen,” says study co-author Yueh-Lung Wu. “We also found previously that NaB can up-regulate some immune response genes in bees, and this can help suppress viral replication and improve the bees’ chances of survival.”

The good thing about this substance, among other things, is that it is really cheap, so it would be a very affordable method for beekeepers to protect their bees and to maintain the balance of the ecosystem.

Referencia: Cheng-Kang Tang, Yu-Hsien Lin, Joe-Air Jiang, Yun-Heng Lu, Chih-Hsuan Tsai, Yu-Chun Lin, Yun-Ru Chen, Carol-P Wu, Yueh-Lung Wu. Real-time monitoring of deformed wing virus-infected bee foraging behavior following histone deacetylase inhibitor treatment. iScience, 2021; 103056 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.103056