[Pollinator] AFB vaccine

[David Inouye]

  Pioneering vaccine seeks to save dying honeybees

Published: Friday, December 7, 2018

A growing number of honeybees die each year due to pesticides, vanishing 
habitats, poor nutrition and climate change, with potentially disastrous 
consequences for agriculture and natural diversity.

Now, scientists at the University of Helsinki have developed the first 
edible vaccine against microbial infections, hoping to save at least 
some of the pollinators.

"We might be right now at a tipping point, without even realizing it," 
Dalial Freitak, the lead scientist on the project, said in an interview 
on Wednesday. "We've been taking the pollination services for granted 
for so long. These insects are not there, they are disappearing."

The first vaccine inoculates bees against American foulbrood, a globally 
spread disease that can kill entire colonies and whose spores can remain 
viable for more than 50 years. The technology may in the future be used 
to combat fungal diseases and other bacterial infections.

The vaccine is administered via an edible sugar patty that's suspended 
in the hive for the queen to consume over seven to 10 days. After she 
ingests the pathogens, she is able to spark an immune response in her 
offspring, eventually generating an inoculated hive.

The vaccine still needs a lot of work before it can become commercially 
available. Scientists must ensure it's safe for the environment, the 
bees themselves and humans who consume the honey. Regulatory hurdles 
will take years to clear. It's also too early to estimate how much 
beekeepers will have to shell out to buy inoculated hives, Freitak said.

While yields for potatoes, rice, wheat, and other crops that don't need 
pollination may also benefit from more bees, vitamin-rich fruits such as 
apples, tomatoes and citruses won't deliver a crop without them, Freitak 
said.

"The problem really touches all of us," she said. "We have to start 
tackling it from all sides." /— Kati Pohjanpalo, Bloomberg/

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