A biotech firm has received conditional approval from the US Department of Agriculture for the first vaccine for honey bees, a move that scientists say could pave the way for controlling a range of viruses and pests that have decimated its global population.
The company, Dalan Animal Health, of Athens, Georgia, developed a prophylactic vaccine that protects honey bees from American foulbrood, an aggressive bacterium that can spread from hive to hive. Previous treatments included burning infected colonies or using antibiotics. Diamond Animal Health, a Dalan collaborating manufacturer, has the conditional license.
Dalail Freitak, associate professor in honey bee research at Karl-Franzens University Graz in Austria and chief scientific officer for Dalan, said the vaccine could help change the way scientists approach animal health.
“There are millions of hives all over the world, and they don’t have a good health care system compared to other animals,” he said. “We now have the tools to improve their resistance against disease.”
The vaccine—containing killed versions of Paenibacillus larvae, the bacterium that causes American foulbrood—is incorporated into royal jelly, a sugary food given to queen bees. Once ingested, the vaccine is deposited in their ovaries, giving the developing larvae immunity by the time they hatch.
For a long time, scientists assumed that insects couldn’t acquire immunity because they lacked antibodies, the proteins that help many animals’ immune systems fight off bacteria and viruses. Once scientists understood that insects could acquire immunity and pass it on to their young, Freitak set out to understand how.
In 2015, she and two other researchers identified the specific protein that elicits an immune response in pups and realized they could cultivate immunity in a single-queen population.
His first goal was to combat American foulbrood, a bacterial disease that turns larvae dark brown and makes the hive smell foul. The bacteria can easily kill colonies of 60,000 bees.
Honey bees are vital to the world’s food system, but they are also declining in the wake of climate change, pesticides, habitat loss, and disease. In U.S.A., honey bees pollinate about a third of food crops, helping to produce $15 billion worth of crops a year, as they feed on pollen and nectar.
“When we started, there was no master plan,” said Annette Kleiser, Dalan’s CEO. “We really hope that we can change the industry now.”
REMY TUMIN
The New York Times
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6532875, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-01-16 21:30:07
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