When I heard about the potential case of honeybees dying because of hygienic behavior
I was shocked I thought it might be a mistake or something.
What is funny is that I immediately start to think about some beekeepers in Florida
that control mites the same way they control American foulbrood, killing the whole colony
Hygienic behavior is a good habit to have, at the individual level humans clear their hands,
take showers and clean the surroundings to avoid infections by viruses and other pathogens
which help at the social level with fewer infected individuals spreading diseases in the social group
in honeybees the same principle is applied there are many social immune behaviors with the same
goal of humans both at the individual and social levels for example grooming
is a social immune behavior where bees claim themselves and other colony members
however the term hygienic behavior in honeybees is defined as the ability
of a honeybee worker to detect and remove dead dye and sick honeybee brood
from sealed cells also help the social group eliminating potential diseases to spread
interestingly excessive hygienic behavior in humans can be detrimental we know today that
a strong immune system is developed by exposure to the right amount of pathogens at certain age
not less not much but what about the honeybees can excessive hygienic behavior be detrimental to them
the greatest pollinators of all time the honeybee apes mellifera the one that help us to keep our
food supply the one that is so important that we have to keep in united states alone
around 2.5 million colonies to pollinate our crops are facing several challenges in the last decades
the introduction of the disgusting blood sucker might varua destructor almost 40 years ago
messed up with the whole system and honeybees are still adapting to the consequences of the
introduction of this terrible mite if you follow this channel for a while you know that varroa
mite feeds on the fat bodies and hemolymph of honeybees and in doing so it not only depletes
the honeybees of important nutrition resources but also varroa can transmit many viruses that can
kill honeybees including deformed wing virus the one that caused malformations of the wings
as you can see right here pretty sad right even sadder is the fact that only a few of my viewers
are subscribers but this is very easy to solve just click the like button and also click the
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researchers like myself and beekeepers are looking hard for ways to help the bees
to overcome difficulties associated with varroa mite which includes malnutrition pesticides and
pathogens because hygienic behavior is a heritable trait, not a learned behavior
some beekeepers perform a genetic selection for this trait
meaning that their honeybee colonies are more hygienic than the average colon is selected
to have more hygienic behavior seems to have no negative impact in their health until now
in April of 2021 researchers from the prestigious USDA honeybee research laboratory in Beltsville
Maryland published a scientific article that will make a lot of people rethink the concept of
hygienic behavior and honeybee health especially when we're talking about the varroa mite
transmitted virus the form of wind virus this is a sick pupil being removed from its cell honeybees
performing hygienic behavior can cannibalize part of the sick brood to recycle precious nutrition to
the colony this is a well-known procedure and the researchers hypothesized that cannibalism
could be a potential transmission pathway of viruses it seems obvious but in science you must
prove it so how did the researchers demonstrate the transmission using powerful molecular
techniques to trace a fluorescence to form a wing virus infection the researchers led by Dr
Francisco Posada demonstrated that cannibalization of Deformed wing virus-infected pupa
resulted in high levels of these virus and worker bees that later on transmitted these virus to
other colony members via trophallaxis allowing circularization of Deformed wing virus variants
without mites the results are very interesting but even more interesting is how the research was done
First, the researchers collected young pupa and injected them with the genetically engineering
fluorescent deformed wing virus that basically make the pupil become green if the virus starts
to replicate in it then they let varroa mite feed on this green pupa to get the green virus
a couple of days later they put this mite in honey bee cells containing healthy brood so
the mite could infect a healthy brood with this virus the high mite infestation in those cells
triggers hygienic behavior making worker bees from the colony find open and remove the sick brood
cannibalizing part of the brood in the process and when the altars detected grain viruses replicating
in the worker bees after the brood removal it was the proof they need to conclude that this
dangerous transmission road occurred naturally now that the researchers know that hygienic worker
bees get infected can these infected hygienic workers transmit the virus to other colony members
two cages separated by a wire mesh on one side they put worker bees that cannibalized
infected pupa and called them donor bees and on the other side, they put worker bees that did not
cannibalize any pupil and call them recipient bees this setup allows the bees to be separated by this
wire mesh but still able to share food via trophallaxis on day 11 of this experiment
the researchers were able to find the green virus activity in the bees that have never cannibalized
infected pupil demonstrating once at for all that the researchers were right hygienic behavior can
spread deformed wing virus to the whole colony by cannibalism followed by trophallaxis. As a
private consultant for the beekeeping industry I visit and interacted with dozens of beekeeping
operations every year and each operation has its own protocols and ideas about how to handle
bees these new findings remind me of a client in central Florida in his operation he is obsessed
with controlling varroa to the point that he kills the whole colony that crosses certain levels of
infestation. His annual colony losses are very low around 7 to 10 percent and in his mind
economically speaking it makes sense to eliminate a couple of colonies for the benefit of all others
i personally think it is an extreme measure but this study about cannibalism and trophallaxis as
a new virus spreading system make me think about this management system please keep in mind that
i'm not i am not suggesting killing hives if you find variable i'm inviting you here to think about
this new findings that's all if the researchers in this study are correct varua might act more as a
trigger of a virus infection cascade varroa mite infestes the hive transmit viruses to some pupa
the hives defend itself trying to remove infested brood infecting worker bees because of hygienic
behavior that leads to a wide spread of viruses inside the hive via trophallaxix making the bees
the main spreader now in an apiary everybody knows there are a lot of bees exchanging its colonies
all the time drifting is a well-known behavior and any beekeeper knows that and here is the problem
now we have a bunch of honeybees with their bellies full of viruses able to transmit them
to new colonies better than the mites themselves perhaps that's why eliminating the colonies might
be working for this colleague in florida it doesn't help much to lower the levels of mite
only because all bees in the colony will be infected and able to transmit the viruses
to other colonies now beekeepers might have an explanation for some very weird colony losses
with apparently no mighty involvement it is a very interesting way to see the problem
in a clear case of how science can help us to figure things out that it will be
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