January 18, 2019 • 3 mins
Honey bees are dying off due to a number of dangers, including bacterial diseases. Learn how researchers are hoping to help these important pollinators in today's episode of BrainStuff.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff Works. Hey, brain stuff,
Lauren vog obam here. You might have heard about how
honey bees are doing poorly these days. It's different from
the situation many of the world's vulnerable creatures find themselves
in a small, obscure Amazonian tree frog, or even a
gorgeous polar bear. We want these creatures to thrive and
(00:24):
live their lives, but are we willing to change our
lifestyles to make it happen. Would like to think so,
but maybe not. The plummeting honey bee colony situation is
a bit different, though, because if honey bees aren't flourishing,
neither are people, and eventually people won't eat as a result.
As honey bees go around collecting the nectar they want
(00:44):
from plants, in the process, they disperse pollen from one
plant to another, making it possible for those plants to
bear fruit. Honey Bees aren't native to most of the
places they live. Over the course of human history, we've
carried insects from their native range in southern Europe, Africa,
and the Middle East, two ecosystems all over the planet.
At this point, they are the most successful pollinators in
(01:05):
the world. And among the things they pollinate are a
lot of our crops. The United States Department of Agriculture
estimates that they pollinate about fifteen billion dollars worth of apples, peaches,
and almonds every year in the United States alone. So
when US beekeepers lose of their colonies, as happened in
we twenty first century, humans not only take notice, we
(01:27):
start frantically trying to fix the problem. Part of the problem, though,
is that these losses, sometimes called colony collapse, don't have
a singular route. Beekeepers call it the four pas por nutrition, pesticides, pathogens,
and parasites, and so there's no silver bullet remedy. But
the most promising immediate solution seems to be figuring out
(01:49):
a way to prevent microbial disease, and that's where be
vaccinations come in. Invertebrates, like US, vaccines work through stimulating
the immune system to make antibodies against a particular disease.
The vaccine immunizes the individual. Since invertebrates like bees don't
make antibodies, scientists have long thought immunizing them would be impossible,
(02:11):
but study discovered that bees transfer immunity to their offspring
through protein called vitellogenin it's an ingredient in their egg yoke.
Vaccinating a bee wouldn't help that bee, But if you
vaccinated the queen of a hive, the only female that reproduces,
she could pass her immunity onto her children and grandchildren
through her eggs. The new vaccine will treat for American
(02:33):
foul brood or a f B, a highly infectious and
fatal disease that quickly devastates hives. The bacterium that causes
it infects larva, and there's no cure. Once it's found,
the hive must be destroyed. The bacteria are hardy too,
They can form protective spores around themselves and thus survive
dormant in a wide range of conditions for over fifty years,
(02:54):
and wake themselves back up when they find themselves transferred
via shared equipment, for example, to a new hive in
the eighteen hundreds. In early nineteen hundreds, American foul brew
decimated bee populations in the US. In some parts of
the country, beekeepers who didn't immediately destroy infected colonies could
be thrown in jail. The vaccine is in the testing
phases and most likely headed for bee boxes near you,
(03:18):
and don't worry. It doesn't require a tiny doctor's chair
and an itty bitty needle to deliver the vaccine. The
Queen Bee can drink the medicine in a little sugar
water and passed along to her offspring. Today's episode was
written by Jescelin Shields and produced by Tyler Klang. For
more on this and lots of other buzzworthy topics, visit
(03:39):
our home planet, how stuff works dot com
Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff Works. Hey, brain stuff,
Lauren vog obam here. You might have heard about how
honey bees are doing poorly these days. It's different from
the situation many of the world's vulnerable creatures find themselves
in a small, obscure Amazonian tree frog, or even a
gorgeous polar bear. We want these creatures to thrive and
(00:24):
live their lives, but are we willing to change our
lifestyles to make it happen. Would like to think so,
but maybe not. The plummeting honey bee colony situation is
a bit different, though, because if honey bees aren't flourishing,
neither are people, and eventually people won't eat as a result.
As honey bees go around collecting the nectar they want
(00:44):
from plants, in the process, they disperse pollen from one
plant to another, making it possible for those plants to
bear fruit. Honey Bees aren't native to most of the
places they live. Over the course of human history, we've
carried insects from their native range in southern Europe, Africa,
and the Middle East, two ecosystems all over the planet.
At this point, they are the most successful pollinators in
(01:05):
the world. And among the things they pollinate are a
lot of our crops. The United States Department of Agriculture
estimates that they pollinate about fifteen billion dollars worth of apples, peaches,
and almonds every year in the United States alone. So
when US beekeepers lose of their colonies, as happened in
we twenty first century, humans not only take notice, we
(01:27):
start frantically trying to fix the problem. Part of the problem, though,
is that these losses, sometimes called colony collapse, don't have
a singular route. Beekeepers call it the four pas por nutrition, pesticides, pathogens,
and parasites, and so there's no silver bullet remedy. But
the most promising immediate solution seems to be figuring out
(01:49):
a way to prevent microbial disease, and that's where be
vaccinations come in. Invertebrates, like US, vaccines work through stimulating
the immune system to make antibodies against a particular disease.
The vaccine immunizes the individual. Since invertebrates like bees don't
make antibodies, scientists have long thought immunizing them would be impossible,
(02:11):
but study discovered that bees transfer immunity to their offspring
through protein called vitellogenin it's an ingredient in their egg yoke.
Vaccinating a bee wouldn't help that bee, But if you
vaccinated the queen of a hive, the only female that reproduces,
she could pass her immunity onto her children and grandchildren
through her eggs. The new vaccine will treat for American
(02:33):
foul brood or a f B, a highly infectious and
fatal disease that quickly devastates hives. The bacterium that causes
it infects larva, and there's no cure. Once it's found,
the hive must be destroyed. The bacteria are hardy too,
They can form protective spores around themselves and thus survive
dormant in a wide range of conditions for over fifty years,
(02:54):
and wake themselves back up when they find themselves transferred
via shared equipment, for example, to a new hive in
the eighteen hundreds. In early nineteen hundreds, American foul brew
decimated bee populations in the US. In some parts of
the country, beekeepers who didn't immediately destroy infected colonies could
be thrown in jail. The vaccine is in the testing
phases and most likely headed for bee boxes near you,
(03:18):
and don't worry. It doesn't require a tiny doctor's chair
and an itty bitty needle to deliver the vaccine. The
Queen Bee can drink the medicine in a little sugar
water and passed along to her offspring. Today's episode was
written by Jescelin Shields and produced by Tyler Klang. For
more on this and lots of other buzzworthy topics, visit
(03:39):
our home planet, how stuff works dot com
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