Hulse Rosaline A, Van Oystaeyen Annette, Carnell Joanne D, Beckett Danielle, Grey William G, Goulson Dave, Wackers Felix, Hughes William O H
School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, UK.
Biobest Group NV, Ilse Velden 18, 2260 Westerlo, Belgium.
Apidologie. 2025;56(1):6. doi: 10.1007/s13592-024-01132-1. Epub 2025 Jan 2.
Commercially reared bees provide economically important pollination services for a diversity of crops. Improving their health is important both to maximise their pollination services and to avoid possible pathogen spillover or spillback with wild pollinators. Diet quality may directly or indirectly affect diverse aspects of bumblebee health, including colony development, individual size and immune health, but the impact of this remains unclear. Here we investigate experimentally the effect of diet quality during bumblebee colony development using three diets: (1) a standard pollen diet used in commercial rearing of colonies for sale, (2) an enhanced diet comprised of a wildflower pollen mix that was expected to be nutritionally superior (including by having an elevated protein content) and (3) a diet of pollen substitute mixed with the standard diet that was expected to be nutritionally poorer. The effect of diet quality on colony health was quantified using colony-level measures (colony weight, size [number of live workers] and number of dead individuals), and individual-level measures (body size, fat body size [proportion of body weight], total haemocyte count and phenoloxidase immune enzyme activity). Diet quality significantly affected colony growth, with colonies fed the enhanced diet growing larger and producing more reproductives than those fed either a standard or poor diet. The enhanced diet also resulted in bees that were significantly larger and had better immune health. The results show that diet can have important effects on the health of commercially reared bumblebees and suggest that the enhancement of standard-rearing diets may improve colony health.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13592-024-01132-1.
商业化养殖的蜜蜂为多种作物提供了具有重要经济意义的授粉服务。改善它们的健康状况对于最大限度地发挥其授粉服务以及避免与野生传粉者之间可能出现的病原体溢出或回溢都很重要。饮食质量可能直接或间接影响大黄蜂健康的多个方面，包括蜂群发育、个体大小和免疫健康，但其影响尚不清楚。在这里，我们通过实验研究了大黄蜂蜂群发育期间饮食质量的影响，使用了三种饮食：（1）用于商业化养殖待售蜂群的标准花粉饮食，（2）由野花花粉混合物组成的强化饮食，预计其营养更丰富（包括蛋白质含量更高），（3）与标准饮食混合的花粉替代物饮食，预计其营养较差。使用蜂群水平的指标（蜂群重量、大小[存活工蜂数量]和死亡个体数量）以及个体水平的指标（身体大小、脂肪体大小[体重比例]、总血细胞计数和酚氧化酶免疫酶活性）来量化饮食质量对蜂群健康的影响。饮食质量显著影响蜂群生长，喂食强化饮食的蜂群比喂食标准饮食或劣质饮食的蜂群生长得更大且产生更多的繁殖个体。强化饮食还导致蜜蜂个体显著更大且免疫健康状况更好。结果表明，饮食对商业化养殖的大黄蜂的健康可能有重要影响，并表明强化标准养殖饮食可能会改善蜂群健康。
在线版本包含可在10.1007/s13592-024-01132-1获取的补充材料。
