Page 13 - WCBM JAC 2020 Proceeding Book

The 8th WCBM Junior Academic Competition, November 7th, 2020

Their absence would mark a catastrophic decrease in crop yields. Moreover, observations show that bees are,
in fact, declining. In the last 4 years, the authors have calculated the percent (40.5%) of U.S honey bee colonies
have been lost due to CCD symptoms.
The results also validated hypothesis 1a, as they highlighted the significant economic loss due to CCD. The
results of the study evaluated how large an economic loss the agricultural industry would suffer if CCD continues
to proceed. Although previous studies had individually assessed the economic value of honey bees and the rate
of CCD, it is notable that our study was the first to integrate the two to evaluate the economic impact of CCD.
To cope with such disease, the authors conducted 4 experiments-separation of crop endosymbiotic bacteria
from A. mellifera, bacterial growth in the presence of honey, bacterial growth in the supernatant of crop bacteria,
and change in honey sugar content due to crop bacteria.
The study confirmed hypothesis 2 that a social stomach symbiotic bacteria plays a key role in maintaining the
bees’ health. It was discovered that E. avium secretes a bacteriocin resistant to other bacterial strains. E. avium
was once identified to synthesize a bacteriocin resistant to Listeria monocytogenes in the digestive tracts of
honeybee larvae. (Audisio et al, 2005) Since the E. avium strains isolated from the social stomach also had
antibiotic bacteriocin, it can be confirmed that E. avium plays a role as normal flora in all stages of A. mellifera
growth. In adults, E. avium resides in the social stomach of the honeybees. The crop is vital to the wellbeing of
the colony, as it stores nectar that is to be shared with other colony members. By repressing the growth of other
bacteria while also minimally metabolizing nectar, E. avium prevents infections and contamination of nectar. This
ensures that all colony members consume healthy nectar. If such normal flora of the crop is altered, the crop will
become prone to infections from pathogenic bacteria such as E. coli, as results show such pathogens can be
detrimental to the bees’ health. This will lead to a contamination of nectar shared within the colony, and its entire
health is put at risk. Such infections may be one of the various causes of CCD.
Just as we humans consume Lactobacilli as probiotic supplements, results showed that E. avium would serve
as an effective health supplement. By relating the lab survival curves of honey bees treated with E. avium to the
real-world effectiveness of the proposed supplement. The results are notable as they directly assess the economic
gains of employing the treatment.

3. Limitation
The most prominent limitation was the lack of a finished product. The economic gains of employing the
treatment was based on lab results. The lab results themselves were also insufficient. Due to limitations, an entire
bee colony could not be employed for the experiments. Since this research was implemented on A. mellifera
groups of 10, an implementation on an entire honeybee colony may be done for more valid results. Techniques
can be devised to produce probiotic supplements for apiculture using E. avium. Such supplements can be treated
to colonies showing symptoms of CCD. Hence, further research should contribute to provide empirical evidence
utilizing the actual probiotic supplement.

©Copyright 2020 by the People and Global Business Association. All Rights Reserved
111