The first vaccine for bees has been approved for use in Canada.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has conditionally authorized an oral vaccine intended to protect honey bees against a disease called American foulbrood, which can wipe out entire colonies if left untreated.
The manufacturer, US-based Dalan Animal Health, announced the Canadian approval in a press release on October 16.
The vaccine can be used in Canada “under veterinary supervision,” the food inspection agency said in an email.
American foulbrood is caused by the bacteria Paenibacillus larvae, which produces environmentally resistant spores that can persist for years in a hive, said Ernesto Guzman, director of the Honey Bee Research Center at the University of Guelph.
Worker bees in the hive can carry the spores and spread the disease, but it’s the bees in the larval stage that show clinical symptoms of infection, Guzman said.
“If they ingest enough of these spores, they will decompose and rot in the hive,” added Stephen Pernal, national manager of honey bee research at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
“When they do this, the bacteria multiplies and produces billions more spores. And these spores can actually infect other developing bees,” said Pernal, who is also manager of the Beaverlodge research farm in northern Alberta.
The decomposing larvae take on a dark color and give off a fishy odor, he noted.
Reduce the use of antibiotics
American foulbrood is often treated “very judiciously” with antibiotics in North America, but there are cases where hives containing tens of thousands of bees have to be burned, Pernal recalled.
Having a vaccine is “another element in our toolbox” to fight the disease, he argued.
Guzman said protecting bees from disease is “extremely important” for human food production.
“It is estimated that a third of the food we consume in Western societies is produced thanks to the pollination services of bees,” he noted.
If the vaccine is effective, it can reduce the use of antibiotics, which “reduces the possibility that an antibiotic could be carried in honey and enter the human food chain,” Pernal added.
“Honey is certainly a product that is tested for various things, including antibiotics, but any time you reduce that input into the system — whether it’s honey bees or other animal production in Canada — it’s a desirable thing,” he said.
The vaccine contains dead Paenibacillus larvae bacteria and works by causing the queen bee, which lays the eggs, to ingest it. The vaccine’s immune protection is passed on to the developing bee larvae.
The vaccine is mixed with a paste of powdered sugar and glucose syrup that worker bees eat and their secretions are fed to the queen bee.
From the laboratory to the real world
Research trials funded by Dalan Animal Health showed a 30 to 50 percent decrease in American foulbrood infection among honey bee larvae whose queens received the vaccine compared to placebo hives.
The key, said MM. Guzman and Pernal, will be seeing if the vaccine has the same effect in the real world, noting that the trials were conducted in controlled laboratory environments.
“If this ends up working when more trials are done in the field, it will be a great tool to control this particular disease,” Guzman said. [Cela] could also pave the way for the development of other vaccines that could be useful to the beekeeping and insect industry. »
The vaccine is expected to be “distributed on a limited basis to commercial beekeepers in Canada…Starting in spring 2024,” Dalan Animal Health said in a news release.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency approved the vaccine in late September, a spokesperson for the organization said in an email.
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