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As some one who is very interested in the subject of honey bees, and several decades ago had a bee hive, I've been very concerned about colony collapse disorder. Today I came across this article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-19137-5
Excerpt from the Nature abstract:
"Recent reports of the weakening and periodical high losses of managed honey bee colonies have alarmed beekeeper, farmers and scientists. Infestations with the ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor in combination with its associated viruses have been identified as a crucial driver of these health problems. Although yearly treatments are required to prevent collapses of honey bee colonies, the number of effective acaricides is small and no new active compounds have been registered in the past 25 years. RNAi-based methods were proposed recently as a promising new tool. However, the application of these methods according to published protocols has led to a surprising discovery. Here, we show that the lithium chloride that was used to precipitate RNA and other lithium compounds is highly effective at killing Varroa mites when fed to host bees at low millimolar concentrations."
I am in no way, shape or form a biologist, but as I read through the article there was mention of gene targeting and so started to get way out of my knowledge area..which is electronics...and quickly lost me.
Is there any truth to this path or is it another way for insecticide makers to push their wares?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by sbgen on Thursday January 18 2018, @05:25PM (4 children)
This is a preliminary study and authors do explicitly mention that field studies are necessary. However, it is an encouraging development in the field of apiary. The gene targeting study they initiated was based on a previous report supporting it. However, in this paper authors apparently observed that their "control" without the gene targeting RNAi gave same result as the test material. Luckily they noticed and tested Lithium salt/s for their effect on mites. Turns out LiCl was the reasons mites were dying, that the amount needed to achieve desired goal was not harmful to bees and feeding bees with the compound was not that hard. Another important aspect is that LiCl and Lithium-citrate salts they found to be effective are not expensive either.. They are water soluble so you dont need complex formulations either.
If I could, I would explain it in terms of electronics but you get the idea.
I did skim over the article. This is a good example of how science moves by careful observation and builds upon previous knowledge.
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(Score: 2) by Zinho on Thursday January 18 2018, @06:19PM (2 children)
D'oh, ninja'ed! Good summary, easier to read than mine (and shorter).
I found it interesting that they went to the trouble of removing the Lithium salt from the gene therapy, determined that gene therapy did have an effect (60% mite mortality over 60 days), and decided to stop researching it because the lithium was so much more effective :)
If there is an award for following in Alexander Fleming's footsteps [britannica.com] these guys certainly deserve one.
As an aside, when did colony collapse disorder start being blamed on mite infestations rather than pesticides?
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(Score: 3, Informative) by HiThere on Thursday January 18 2018, @06:34PM
What I've always derived from what I read is that it was due to a confluence of factors. One is that sub-critical levels of pesticides still left the bees and the colonies weaker that they were previously, so they were more subject to other insults, including various infections and temperature changes. The mites would count as a part of "various infections" this article seems to be asserting that they (and the viruses they carry) are the most significant one.
It's also true, however, the the neonicotinoid pesticides seem to be strongly implicated.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 18 2018, @08:21PM
this has always been the argument of the pesticide makers. never mind that they poison the whole food chain and kill everything. what are you gonna do? *not* steal from social security and pay people who live too long?
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday January 18 2018, @10:49PM
Wait, so the neonicotinoids [motherjones.com] are off the suspect list, and all those studies [sciencealert.com] were wrong as well as the scoffed at Cellular phone signals [inhabitat.com].
It was the lousy mites all along?
We need to find a lessor flea [wikiquote.org] to go after the mites.
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