Feeding Honeybee Colonies with Honeybee-Specific Lactic Acid Bacteria (Hbs-LAB) Does Not Affect Colony-Level Hbs-LAB Composition or Paenibacillus larvae Spore Levels, Although American Foulbrood Affected Colonies Harbor a More Diverse Hbs-LAB Community

The main current methods for controlling American Foulbrood (AFB) in honeybees, caused by the bacterial pathogen Paenibacillus larvae, are enforced incineration or prophylactic antibiotic treatment, neither of which is fully satisfactory. This has led to an increased interest in the natural relation...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Microbial ecology 2020-04, Vol.79 (3), p.743-755
Main Authors: Lamei, Sepideh, Stephan, Jörg G., Nilson, Bo, Sieuwerts, Sander, Riesbeck, Kristian, de Miranda, Joachim R., Forsgren, Eva
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
American foulbrood
Antibiotics
Apis mellifera
Bacteria
Bees
Beneficial microbes
Bifidobacterium
Biodiversity
Biologi
Biological Sciences
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Colonies
Composition
Control methods
Direct conversion
Disease resistance
Ecology
Ekologi
Flowering
Geoecology/Natural Processes
HOST MICROBE INTERACTIONS
Incineration
Infections
Intestinal microbiota
Lactate
Lactic acid
Lactic acid bacteria
Lactobacillus
Larvae
Levels
Life Sciences
Mass spectrometry
Mass spectroscopy
Microbial Ecology
Microbiology
Microbiomes
Microorganisms
Mikrobiologi
Natural Sciences
Nature Conservation
Naturvetenskap
Paenibacillus larvae
Pathogens
Specificity
Spores
Water Quality/Water Pollution
Zoologi
Zoology
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Summary:The main current methods for controlling American Foulbrood (AFB) in honeybees, caused by the bacterial pathogen Paenibacillus larvae, are enforced incineration or prophylactic antibiotic treatment, neither of which is fully satisfactory. This has led to an increased interest in the natural relationships between the pathogenic and mutualistic microorganisms of the honeybee microbiome, in particular, the antagonistic effects of Honeybee-Specific Lactic Acid Bacteria (hbs-LAB) against P. larvae. We investigated whether supplemental administration of these bacteria affected P. larvae infection at colony level over an entire flowering season. Over the season, the supplements affected neither colony-level hbs-LAB composition nor naturally subclinical or clinical P. larvae spore levels. The composition of hbs-LAB in colonies was, however, more diverse in apiaries with a history of clinical AFB, although this was also unrelated to P. larvae spore levels. During the experiments, we also showed that qPCR could detect a wider range of hbs-LAB, with higher specificity and sensitivity than mass spectrometry. Honeybee colonies are complex super-organisms where social immune defenses, natural homeostatic mechanisms, and microbiome diversity and function play a major role in disease resistance. This means that observations made at the individual bee level cannot be simply extrapolated to infer similar effects at colony level. Although individual laboratory larval assays have clearly demonstrated the antagonistic effects of hbs-LAB on P. larvae infection, the results from the experiments presented here indicate that direct conversion of such practice to colony-level administration of live hbs-LAB is not effective. and sensitivity than mass spectrometry. Honeybee colonies are complex super-organisms where social immune defenses, natural homeostatic mechanisms, and microbiome diversity and function play a major role in disease resistance. This means that observations made at the individual bee level cannot be simply extrapolated to infer similar effects at colony level. Although individual laboratory larval assays have clearly demonstrated the antagonistic effects of hbs-LAB on P. larvae infection, the results from the experiments presented here indicate that direct conversion of such practice to colony-level administration of live hbs-LAB is not effective.
ISSN:0095-3628
1432-184X
1432-184X
DOI:10.1007/s00248-019-01434-3