We have tested extracts from adaptogenic plants with a view to combating nosemosis – a dangerous bee disease. Not only did these substances prove non-toxic, but they also showed high therapeutic levels in honeybees’ infections with Nosema spp. They were effective in improving bees’ immunity, which manifested in the increase in the phenol oxidase activity. The increase in the phenol oxidase activity immediately following administering the extracts proves the immune system has been activated, owing to which the insects more easily fight their infections.
Patent application No. P.415155. Aneta A. Ptaszyńska, Grzegorz Borsuk, Daniel Załuski, Małgorzata Cytryńska, Wiesław Mułenko, Agnieszka Zdybicka-Barabas, 2015. Plant preparations to be applied in treating nosemosis in bees and to improve their immune systems.
Bee-dedicated probiotics have beneficial effects on bees’ health both prophylactically and therapeutically. Lactobacillus kunkeii bacteria deserve special attention as probiotic organisms because they restore their host’s natural and appropriately functioning complex of gut microorganisms – their so called microbiome. They achieve this through competing with pathogenic microorganisms for nutrients and attachment sites, easing and preventing gut disorders triggered by pathogens. This is because probiotics synthetize lactic acid, acetic acid, H2O2 as well as bacteriocin-like compounds, and finally synthetize a number of enzymes affecting food digestibility and thus modulate their hosts’ immunological reaction.
Patent application No. P.423363. Aneta A. Ptaszyńska, Wanda Małek, Grzegorz Borsuk, Mirosław Grzęda, Magdalena Wicha, Artur Pachla, 2017. Bacteria strains from the Lactobacillus and Fructobacillus genera that have been isolated from honeybees’ gut in order to be applied in treating and preventing bee diseases, as well as probiotic preparations based on such bacteria strains.
