A vaccine has been developed for insects for the first time, and experts believe that it could help save bees as well. At the moment, honeybees are in serious danger. A bacterial diseases named American foulbrood is decimating bee colonies. AFB is caused by the spore forming bacterium Paenibacillus larvae.
The diseases cannot be cured, so the only way to control American foulbrood is by destroying the infected colonies. AFB can spread between hives through beekeepers who use infected combs or other types of equipment. Worse than that, American foulbrood spores are highly resistant to high temperatures and freezing temperatures and their spores remain viable for more than 50 years.
The vaccine
‘Pollinators falling ill and dying is a serious threat to the global food economy”, declared Dalial Freitak, the scientist at the University of Helsinki who developed the vaccine. “Even a slight improvement in their life has vast significance on a global scale,” he added..
The university explained that AFB is “most widespread and destructive of the bee brood diseases”. It was explained that this vaccine “protects bees from diseases while protecting global food production”. Since this vaccine is edible, it can be distributed via sugar patties. Placing a sugar patty in the hive should be enough, and the queen will consume it over the course of a week.
Once the queen consumes it, the pathogens are passed into her eggs, protecting the upcoming generations as well. “Now we’ve discovered the mechanism to show that you can actually vaccinate them. You can transfer a signal from one generation to another”, said Freitak.
This vaccine could help ameliorate the honeybee crisis. At the moment, bee colony collapse all over the world, as a result of global warming, habitat destructions, drought and pollution.
