Falcão Soraia I, Bocquet Michel, Chlebo Robert, Barreira João C M, Giacomelli Alessandra, Smodiš Škerl Maja Ivana, Quaglia Giancarlo
Centro de Investigação de Montanha (CIMO), Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Santa Apolónia, 5300-253 Bragança, Portugal.
Laboratório Associado para a Sustentabilidade e Tecnologia em Regiões de Montanha (SusTEC), Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Campus de Santa Apolónia, 5300-253 Bragança, Portugal.
Animals (Basel). 2024 Oct 1;14(19):2836. doi: 10.3390/ani14192836.
The nutritional status of a honey bee colony is recognized as a key factor in ensuring a healthy hive. A deficient flow of nectar and pollen in the honey bee colony immediately affects its development, making room for pathogen proliferation and, consequently, for a reduction in the activities and strength of the colony. It is, therefore, urgent for the beekeepers to use more food supplements and/or substitutes in apiary management, allowing them to address colony nutritional imbalances according to the beekeeper's desired results. In this context, the commercial market for beekeeping products is growing rapidly due to low regulation of animal food products and the beekeeper's willingness to guarantee healthy colonies. There are numerous products (bee food additives) currently available on the worldwide market, with a highly variable and sometimes even undefined composition, claiming a set of actions at the level of brood stimulation, energy supplementation, queen rearing support, reduction of Varroa reproduction levels, improvement of the intestinal microflora of bees, Nosema prevention, and improvement of the health of honey bee colonies infested by American foulbrood, among others. To address this issue, the members of the COLOSS (Honey Bee Research Association) NUTRITION Task Force are proposing, for the first time, action on honey bee feed control and monitoring. In our common study, we focused on candy board composition and quality parameters. For that, a selected number of commercial candy boards usually found in Europe were analyzed in terms of water and ash content, pH, acidity, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, sugars, C3-C4 sugar origin, and texture. Results revealed differences between the values found and the ones displayed on the label, demonstrating the need for regulation of the quality of these products.
蜂群的营养状况被认为是确保蜂巢健康的关键因素。蜂群中花蜜和花粉的供应不足会立即影响其发育，为病原体的繁殖创造条件，进而导致蜂群活动和力量的减弱。因此，养蜂人迫切需要在养蜂管理中使用更多的食物补充剂和/或替代品，以便根据养蜂人的预期结果解决蜂群的营养失衡问题。在这种背景下，由于动物食品监管宽松以及养蜂人希望保证蜂群健康，养蜂产品的商业市场正在迅速增长。目前全球市场上有众多产品（蜜蜂食品添加剂），其成分高度可变，有时甚至不明确，声称具有一系列作用，如刺激幼虫发育、补充能量、支持蜂王培育、降低瓦螨繁殖水平、改善蜜蜂肠道微生物群、预防微孢子虫病以及改善感染美洲幼虫腐臭病的蜂群健康状况等。为解决这一问题，COLOSS（蜜蜂研究协会）营养工作组的成员首次提议对蜜蜂饲料进行控制和监测。在我们的共同研究中，我们重点关注了糖脾的成分和质量参数。为此，我们对欧洲常见的一些商业糖脾进行了分析，检测了其水分、灰分含量、pH值、酸度、5-羟甲基糠醛、糖分、C3 - C4糖来源以及质地。结果显示，检测值与标签上标注的值存在差异，这表明需要对这些产品的质量进行监管。
