Effects of Two Commercial Protein Diets on the Health of Two Imago Ages of Apis mellifera L. Reared in Laboratory

Animals

Antonio Nanetti¹  Lionella Palego²  Gino Giannaccini³  Laura Betti³  Antonio Felicioli⁴  Elena Tafi⁴  Simona Sagona⁴  Francesca Coppola⁴ 

[1] CREA Research Centre for Agriculture and Environment, Via di Saliceto 80, 40128 Bologna, Italy;Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Via Savi 10, 56126 Pisa, Italy;Department of Pharmacy, Pisa University, Via Bonanno 6, 56126 Pisa, Italy;Department of Veterinary Sciences, Pisa University, Viale delle Piagge 2, 56124 Pisa, Italy;

关键词: honey bees;    immune system;    protein diet;    survival;    feed intake;    health;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ani12080968

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Protein-supplemented artificial diets are widely used by beekeepers during winter and whenever food availability is low, yet no data are available concerning their effects on bees’ health. In this work, the effects of two commercial diets enriched with 1.7% and 7.7% protein concentration on feed intake, survival rate, glucose oxidase, phenoloxidase and glutathione S-transferase in newly emerged and forager bees were tested. Administration of a 7.7% protein-enriched diet significantly reduced the lifespan of both newly emerged and forager bees, while only in foragers a significantly higher feed intake was recorded. In newly emerged bees, administration of a high-protein-enriched diet stimulated glucose oxidase production at the 10th day of feeding, determined a reduction of phenoloxidase and did not affect glutathione S-transferase activity. In forager bees, a high level of protein inclusion did not determine any significant variation in either glucose oxidase, phenoloxidase or glutathione S-transferase activity. Therefore, the results obtained in this investigation suggest that administration of commercial protein diets negatively affect honey bee health, determining an increase in mortality. Further investigations on the effect of concentration and quality of proteins are desirable to provide beekeepers with scientific evidence on protein feeding.

【 授权许可】

Unknown