A study about the application of probiotics on Apis mellifera

Abstract

Our study aimed to evaluate the effects of applying the common animal probiotics Lactobacillus plantarum strain JCM 1149 (LP), Bacillus subtilis subsp subtilis strain 168 (BS), Bifidobacterium adolescentis ATCC 15703 (BA), and Clostridium butyricum strain VP13266 (CB) in beekeeping systems. In a laboratory-controlled trial, the effects of LP, BS, BA and CB on nutrient deposition and immune properties of honey bees were evaluated. LP, BA, and CB enhanced pepsin activity, BS and LP increased lipase activity, and LP increased sucrase activity in the midgut, suggesting that these probiotics can improve the utilization of nutrients in honey bees by improving the activity of digestive enzyme activity. Besides, CB improved the total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) and the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase. LP and BS increased T-AOC and SOD activity. BS up-regulated the expression of Abaecin, Apidaecin, and Defensin-1. LP up-regulated the expression of Defensin-2. BA and CB up-regulated the expression of Abaecin and Apidaecin, respectively. According to the results of the laboratory-controlled trial, LP and BS could be more beneficial for honey bees compared to the other two tested strains. To study the effect of LP and BS supplementation in the field, we evaluated the colony size, the weight of newly emerged workers, the content of short-chain fatty acids, and the composition of the gut bacterial community. BS increased the population size of the colonies, the weight of newly emerged workers, and the relative abundance of Lactobacillus, showing it to be a beneficial symbiont. BS also significantly increased the content of acetic acid, propionic acid, and isobutyric acid. Overall, the results of this study indicate that animal probiotics can be used for beekeeping, and BS was the most effective as a feed additive for honey bees.

Keywords:

• Honey bee
• probiotic
• digestive enzymes
• antioxidant
• AMPs
• SCFAs
• gut microbes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was financially supported by special funds for the Efficient Ecological Agriculture Innovation Project of the Taishan Industry Leading Talent Program (No. LJNY202003), the Natural Science Foundation of China (32102607) and the earmarked fund for the China Agriculture Research System of MOF and MARA (No. CARS-44).