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Insects
Special Issues
New Perspectives on Honeybee Health
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New Perspectives on Honeybee Health

A special issue of Insects (ISSN 2075-4450).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 March 2020) | Viewed by 13503

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Joachim R de Miranda

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden
Interests: bee health; virology; host-pathogen interaction; disease ecology
Dr. Francesco Nazzi

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Guest Editor
University of Udine
Interests: bee health; host-parasite interaction; bee biology; chemical ecology
Dr. Barbara Locke

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Interests: bee health; varroa mite and virus health; host-parasite interaction; evolutionary ecology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

For centuries, the health of domesticated bees has been important due to its implications for beekeeping and honey production. Honeybee pathology has progressed accordingly to define how every single pathogen affects the physiology of the bees and the colony’s performance. Recently, the health of honeybees has also become a subject of public awareness because of the critical role of Apis mellifera for stable, season-long pollination services over large distances to both wild plant communities and agricultural crops, and thus its critical role in biodiversity and food security. Concurrently, the conceptual perspective in bee health research has shifted from a pathogen- and disease-centric approach to a multifactorial approach, involving a dynamic balance among a range of threats and resources interacting at multiple levels of scale.

After reviewing the history of bee pathology research, we will explore this new paradigm of honeybee health through a series of articles addressing different aspects of honeybee health at different levels of organization, including molecular health, microbial health (pathogens and beneficial micro-organisms), nutritional health, social-behavioural health, environmental health (xenobiotics, pollution, and climate), population-genetic health, health modeling and prediction, land-use and health, beekeeping sustainability, and pollinator health policy.

Prof. Joachim R de Miranda
Dr. Francesco Nazzi
Dr. Barbara Locke
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Insects is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Honeybee, pollinator, health, pathogen, pesticide, health modeling, microbiome, nutrition, sustainable beekeeping, pollinator policy

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 1806 KiB  
Article
The Effect of Foraging on Bumble Bees, Bombus terrestris, Reared under Laboratory Conditions
by Pavel Dobeš, Martin Kunc, Jana Hurychová, Alena Votavová, Olga Komzáková and Pavel Hyršl
Insects 2020, 11(5), 321; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects11050321 - 23 May 2020
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3111
Abstract
Bumble bees are important pollinators broadly used by farmers in greenhouses and under conditions in which honeybee pollination is limited. As such, bumble bees are increasingly being reared for commercial purposes, which brings into question whether individuals reared under laboratory conditions are fully [...] Read more.
Bumble bees are important pollinators broadly used by farmers in greenhouses and under conditions in which honeybee pollination is limited. As such, bumble bees are increasingly being reared for commercial purposes, which brings into question whether individuals reared under laboratory conditions are fully capable of physiological adaptation to field conditions. To understand the changes in bumble bee organism caused by foraging, we compared the fundamental physiological and immunological parameters of Bombus terrestris workers reared under constant optimal laboratory conditions with workers from sister colonies that were allowed to forage for two weeks in the field. Nutritional status and immune response were further determined in wild foragers of B. terrestris that lived under the constant influence of natural stressors. Both wild and laboratory-reared workers subjected to the field conditions had a lower protein concentration in the hemolymph and increased antimicrobial activity, the detection of which was limited in the non-foragers. However, in most of the tested parameters, specifically the level of carbohydrates, antioxidants, total hemocyte concentration in the hemolymph and melanization response, we did not observe any significant differences between bumble bee workers produced in the laboratory and wild animals, nor between foragers and non-foragers. Our results show that bumble bees reared under laboratory conditions can mount a sufficient immune response to potential pathogens and cope with differential food availability in the field, similarly to the wild bumble bee workers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Perspectives on Honeybee Health)
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14 pages, 1627 KiB  
Communication
Descriptive Bacterial and Fungal Characterization of Propolis Using Ultra-High-Throughput Marker Gene Sequencing
by Jose F. Garcia-Mazcorro, Jorge R. Kawas and Alicia G. Marroquin-Cardona
Insects 2019, 10(11), 402; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects10110402 - 12 Nov 2019
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2639
Abstract
Bees harbor microorganisms that are important for host health, physiology, and survival. Propolis helps modulate the immune system and health of the colony, but little information is available about its microbial constituents. Total genomic DNA from samples of natural propolis from Apis mellifera [...] Read more.
Bees harbor microorganisms that are important for host health, physiology, and survival. Propolis helps modulate the immune system and health of the colony, but little information is available about its microbial constituents. Total genomic DNA from samples of natural propolis from Apis mellifera production hives from four locations in Mexico were used to amplify a region of the 16S rRNA gene (bacteria) and the internal transcriber spacer (fungi), using PCR. The Illumina MiSeq platform was used to sequence PCR amplicons. Extensive variation in microbial composition was observed between the propolis samples. The most abundant bacterial group was Rhodopila spp. (median: 14%; range: 0.1%–27%), a group with one of the highest redox potential in the microbial world. Other high abundant groups include Corynebacterium spp. (median: 8.4%; 1.6%–19.5%) and Sphingomonas spp. (median: 5.9%; 0.03%–14.3%), a group that has been used for numerous biotechnological applications because of its biodegradative capabilities. Bacillus and Prevotella spp. alone comprised as much as 88% (53% and 35%, respectively) of all bacterial microbiota in one sample. Candida (2%–43%), Acremonium (0.03%–25.2%), and Aspergillus (0.1%–43%) were among the most abundant fungi. The results contribute to a better understanding of the factors associated with the health of Apis mellifera production hives. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Perspectives on Honeybee Health)
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16 pages, 2778 KiB  
Article
The Year of the Honey Bee (Apis mellifera L.) with Respect to Its Physiology and Immunity: A Search for Biochemical Markers of Longevity
by Martin Kunc, Pavel Dobeš, Jana Hurychová, Libor Vojtek, Silvana Beani Poiani, Jiří Danihlík, Jaroslav Havlík, Dalibor Titěra and Pavel Hyršl
Insects 2019, 10(8), 244; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects10080244 - 7 Aug 2019
Cited by 31 | Viewed by 7206
Abstract
It has been known for many years that in temperate climates the European honey bee, Apis mellifera, exists in the form of two distinct populations within the year, short-living summer bees and long-living winter bees. However, there is only limited knowledge about [...] Read more.
It has been known for many years that in temperate climates the European honey bee, Apis mellifera, exists in the form of two distinct populations within the year, short-living summer bees and long-living winter bees. However, there is only limited knowledge about the basic biochemical markers of winter and summer populations as yet. Nevertheless, the distinction between these two kinds of bees is becoming increasingly important as it can help beekeepers to estimate proportion of long-living bees in hives and therefore in part predict success of overwintering. To identify markers of winter generations, we employed the continuous long-term monitoring of a single honey bee colony for almost two years, which included measurements of physiological and immunological parameters. The results showed that the total concentration of proteins, the level of vitellogenin, and the antibacterial activity of haemolymph are the best three of all followed parameters that are related to honey bee longevity and can therefore be used as its markers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Perspectives on Honeybee Health)
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