Are honey bees a suitable model for fetal alcohol spectrum disorders?

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) are a continuum of disorders caused by prenatal exposure to ethanol. They affect an estimated 4% of Canadians. FASDs are associated with a host of complications including, but not limited to, cognitive difficulties, developmental delay, increased mortality, smaller birth weight, smaller brain size, as well as gross and fine motor issues. It has been previously established that fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) are a suitable invertebrate model for FASDs. Honey bees (Apis mellifera) share many similarities to Drosophila as a research model, but with the distinct advantage of highly social behaviour, similar to that of humans. In this project we exposed honey bees to incremental, sublethal concentrations of ethanol during larval development and monitored their survival, developmental rate, and weight at adult emergence. We found that larval honey bees exposed to ≥6% ethanol experienced significantly higher mortality, developmental delay, and lower body weight at emergence. Accordingly, these results, in combination with ongoing neurobehavioural analyses of adult bees exposed to ethanol as larvae, suggest that honey bees may be an ideal model for human FASDs

Does hive strength predispose honey bees to European foulbrood disease?

BC Blueberries, Project Apis m., Boehringer Ingelheim, Mitacs, Costco Wholesale, Saskatchewan Agriculture Development Fund, Agriculture Funding Consortium, Saskatchewan Beekeepers Development CommissionEuropean Foulbrood (EFB) is a bacterial disease of young honey bee larvae, caused by Melissococcus plutonius infection of the larval midgut. It occurs in times of nutritional stress when insufficient food is supplied to the larvae by the nursing bee population. EFB increases larval mortality, thereby limiting the colony’s growth, which can have consequences on the hive’s pollination services, honey production, and ability to reproduce. Recently, increased incidence of EFB has been observed across North America; however, the underlaying factors predisposing colonies to EFB remain largely unknown