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Title: Antibiotics in hives and their effects on honey bee physiology and behavioral development
Recurrent honey bee losses make it critical to understand the impact of human interventions, such as antibiotics use in apiculture. Antibiotics are used to prevent or treat bacterial infections in colonies. However, little is known about their effects on honey bee development. We studied the effect of two commercial beekeeping antibiotics on the bee physiology and behavior throughout development. Our results show that antibiotic treatments have an effect on amount of lipids and rate of behavioral development. Lipid amount in treated bees was higher than those not treated. Also, the timing of antibiotic treatment had distinct effects for the age of onset of behaviors starting with cleaning, then nursing and lastly foraging. Bees treated during larva-pupa stages demonstrated an accelerated behavioral development and loss of lipids, while bees treated from larva to adulthood had a delay in behavioral development and loss of lipids. The effects were shared across the two antibiotics tested, TerramycinR (oxytetracycline) and TylanR (tylosin tartrate). These results on effects of antibiotic treatments suggest a role of microbiota in the interaction between the fat body and brain that is important for honey bee behavioral development.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1940621 1633184 1826729 1545803 1736019 1707355
NSF-PAR ID:
10276713
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Biology Open
ISSN:
2046-6390
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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