The Digest’s Top 10 Innovations for the week of May 30th, 2018

#9 Researchers generate buzz with bee-saving probiotics

In Canada, researchers at the Université Laval have found that adding probiotics to bees’ food helps prevent nosemosis, a fungal infection associated with the spiking rate of colony collapse disorder worldwide.

“Under normal conditions, this fungus does not cause any problems for bees,” says Nicolas Derome, professor at the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Université Laval and lead author. “But when bees are subjected to stress, the microorganism can evade their immune system, causing an infection that can impair their ability to forage, hinder larval care, disturb the bees’ orientation, and increase mortality.”

Derome and his team tested four probiotics. Bactocell and Levucell are used in agriculture, namely pork, chicken, shrimp and salmon farming. The other two were bacteria isolated from the intestines of healthy bees. All four showed similar effectiveness.

“It’s important to note that given a very high infection rate, the probiotics tested did not reduce the number of fungi present in bees, but they allowed the bees to better tolerate them,” Derome adds.