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Probiotic Potential Of Inspect-Pollinators Originated Lactic Acid Bacteria and Fructophilio Lactic Acid Bacteria to Prevent American Foulbrood Disease in Apis Mellifera

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Apis mellifera or honey bee is the most crucial pollinator globally, providing 50% of global
crop pollination. However, bee colony loss is increasing and one of the causes is American foulbrood
disease (AFB), a disease that kills honey bee larva. Paenibacillus larvae, a gram positive bacteria is
the causative agent of AFB, it can produce spores that are able to survive in extreme heat and
chemical compounds. Solutions to control this disease have been approached, such as hive burning
and antibiotics treatment. However, there are some drawbacks, which are air pollution and
antimicrobial resistance gene development, respectively. Therefore, a safer approach is needed.
Probiotics are generally recognized as safe, well known for their antimicrobial activity, and beneficial
for general health. Although there is some research that studies about probiotics for honey bees,
probiotics strains that showed good performance in fulfilling the probiotics characteristics still need
to be discovered. Hence, identifying new candidates by exploring new sources are needed. Insect
pollinators, such as hornet, wasp, and wild bees are found to contain abundant lactic acid bacteria
(LAB) and fructophilic lactic acid bacteria (FLAB) and they are less susceptible to AFB. Thus, it is
hypothesized that insect pollinators other than Apis mellifera contain LAB and FLAB that are
potentially used as probiotics for Apis mellifera to prevent AFB. This study aimed to find probiotics
candidates by isolating LAB and FLAB from insect pollinators to prevent AFB in honey bees. Their
potential will be tested based on their antimicrobial activity towards P. larvae, their survivability in
50% sucrose syrup, pH 5.2 environment, cell-surface properties, and antibiotic susceptibility. The
result showed that strain 21, isolated from Vespa crabro has the best performance in inhibiting P.
larvae with ZOI of 19.04 0.04 mm, successfully proliferated in 50% sucrose syrup and pH 5.2
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environment, and reached high percentages of auto-aggregation and hydrophobicity. Strain 21 is also
susceptible to tetracycline 30 ug and gentamicin 10 ug, indicating that it is safe. However, due to
unreliable methodology, it resulted in false comparison results. Therefore, it is recommended to
repeat the experiment using modified and reliable protocol. Furthermore, identification of the
selected strain using sequencing and further tests to validate its capabilities and ensure its safeness is
also recommended.
Keywords: probiotics, Paenibacillus larvae, American foulbrood disease, honey bee, pollinators

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Detail Information

Series Title

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Call Number

EP BT-012

Publisher

i3L, Jakarta : i3L, Jakarta., 2024

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

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Classification

EP BT-012

Content Type

text

Media Type

other

Carrier Type

-

Edition

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Subject(s)

Probiotics
Paenibacillus larvae
American foulbrood disease
honey bee
pollinators

Specific Detail Info

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Statement of Responsibility

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