The first vaccine for bees has been approved for use in Canada.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has conditionally approved an oral vaccine designed to protect honey bees from a disease called American foulbrood, which can wipe out entire colonies if left untreated.
The manufacturer, U.S.-based Dalan Animal Health, announced the Canadian approval in an Oct. 16 press release.
The vaccine can be used in Canada “under veterinary supervision,” the food regulator said in an email.
American foulbrood is caused by the bacterium Paenibacillus larvae, which produces environmentally resistant spores that can survive in a hive for years, said Ernesto Guzman, director of the Honey Bee Research Center at the University of Guelph.
Worker bees in the hive can transmit the spores and spread the disease, but it is 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 for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
“When they do that, the bacteria multiply and produce billions more spores. And those spores can actually infect other developing bees,” said Pernal, who is also manager of the Beaverlodge research farm in northern Alberta.
The decaying larvae turn a dark color and give off a fish-like smell, he noted.
Reduce the use of antibiotics
American foulbrood is often treated “very carefully” with antibiotics in North America, but there are cases where hives containing tens of thousands of bees have to be burned, Pernal recalls.
A vaccine is “another item in our toolbox” to combat the disease, he argued.
Guzman says 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 may reduce the use of antibiotics, which “reduces the possibility that an antibiotic is present in honey and enters the human food chain,” Pernal added.
“Honey is certainly a product that is tested for various things, including antibiotics, but any time you can reduce that input into the system – whether it’s from honey bees or other animal production in Canada – it’s a desirable thing,” he explained.
The vaccine contains dead Paenibacillus larval bacteria and causes the queen bee that lays the eggs to ingest them. 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, which the worker bees eat and whose secretions are fed to the queen bee.
From the lab to the real world
Research trials funded by Dalan Animal Health showed a 30 to 50 percent reduction in American foulbrood infection in honey bee larvae whose queens received the vaccine compared to placebo hives.
The key, said MM. Guzman and Pernal will check whether the vaccine has the same effect in the real world, noting that the trials were conducted in controlled laboratory environments.
“If it works after further field testing, it will be a great tool to combat this particular disease,” Guzman said. (It) could also pave the way for the development of other vaccines that could be useful for beekeeping and the insect industry.”
The vaccine is expected to be distributed “on a limited basis to commercial beekeepers in Canada beginning in spring 2024,” Dalan Animal Health said in a news release.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency approved the vaccine in late September, a spokesman for the organization said in an email.