Scientists discover that bees keep healthier when kept warm

[user 20297]

In this revelatory study, researchers found that cold temperatures made bees susceptible to pathogens.
Their hypothesis is that it may be possible to use medication to artificially boost the bees' production of a compound that is important for their resistance to disease.
I know it's much more complex to achieve, but I wonder if keeping bees warm would have the same, positive effect?

https://www.agdaily.com/news/honey-bees-metabolic-pathway-linked-to-winter-colony-loss/

 

[Antipodes]

In this revelatory study, researchers found that cold temperatures made bees susceptible to pathogens.
Their hypothesis is that it may be possible to use medication to artificially boost the bees' production of a compound that is important for their resistance to disease.
I know it's much more complex to achieve, but I wonder if keeping bees warm would have the same, positive effect?

https://www.agdaily.com/news/honey-bees-metabolic-pathway-linked-to-winter-colony-loss/

I wonder how diseased bees are in say a warm climate like Brisbane?
Their "winters" are like a really warm Scottish summer. I think people living there need a heater on (on average) for about three days a year.

 

[Jules59]

I wonder how diseased bees are in say a warm climate like Brisbane?
Their "winters" are like a really warm Scottish summer. I think people living there need a heater on (on average) for about three days a year.

Perhaps they are acclimatised and the cold stress is relative to the ambient temp to some degree.

 

[Antipodes]

Perhaps they are acclimatised and the cold stress is relative to the ambient temp to some degree.

Yes, that's possible. As far as I know, honeybees in the gloriously warm sub-tropical areas like coastal Queensland, still get all the usual diseases like chalkbrood, AFB, EFB, sacbrood, nosema etc., but perhaps there are differences in prevalence and severity?

 

[Beesnaturally]

In this revelatory study, researchers found that cold temperatures made bees susceptible to pathogens.
Their hypothesis is that it may be possible to use medication to artificially boost the bees' production of a compound that is important for their resistance to disease.
I know it's much more complex to achieve, but I wonder if keeping bees warm would have the same, positive effect?

https://www.agdaily.com/news/honey-bees-metabolic-pathway-linked-to-winter-colony-loss/

Are we talking short-term individual health or long term local strain health Beebe?

 

[user 20297]

Are we talking short-term individual health or long term local strain health Beebe?

The specific circumstances were winter conditions and the cluster; it was implied that as experienced in temperate regions.
The extract is brief and seems like an exercise to find out if there might be an opportunity to market an additional medication for bees; am I too cynical?

 

[The Poot]

The specific circumstances were winter conditions and the cluste; it was implied that as experienced in temperate regions.
The extract is brief and seems like an exercise to find out if there might be an opportunity to market an additional medication for bees; am I too cynical?

No, you’re not.

 

[user 20297]

Yes, that's possible. As far as I know, honeybees in the gloriously warm sub-tropical areas like coastal Queensland, still get all the usual diseases like chalkbrood, AFB, EFB, sacbrood, nosema etc., but perhaps there are differences in prevalence and severity?

Presumably, Queensland bees don't experience the sort of winter that forces them to cluster for days on end? That seems to be the sort of "stress" that leads to fatalities from those ever-present diseases.

 

[Beesnaturally]

The specific circumstances were winter conditions and the cluster; it was implied that as experienced in temperate regions.
The extract is brief and seems like an exercise to find out if there might be an opportunity to market an additional medication for bees; am I too cynical?

No, but perhaps missing the error present in all too many bee studies. Delighting in the prospect of short-term gains while missing the big picture - the potential for long-term damage.

 

[user 20297]

No, but perhaps missing the error present in all too many bee studies. Delighting in the prospect of short-term gains while missing the big picture - the potential for long-term damage.

As in so many soundbites of scientific discovery that appear from time to time, this study has resulted in a staternent of the obvious. Don't we all know that most organisms that are already in good health and are warm to their needs, well fed with the appropriate diet and given the freedom to live in their preferred habitat, as a population, seem to be fairly resilient in the face of familiar diseases?

 

[North End Bees]

The extract is brief and seems like an exercise to find out if there might be an opportunity to market an additional medication for bees; am I too cynical?

I wouldn't think there's much of an opportunity for marketing additional medications.

SIRT1 has been researched extensively since at least the 1990s. Most of this has focused on the effects of excessive dietary protein which, in reducing SIRT2 levels, reduces longevity.

And despite this adverse effect being validated in numerous trials, the makers of supplements such as Candipolline Gold, etc. are still touting it to 'improve health and longevity' over winter.

Interestingly, there are growing numbers of health buffs who take daily Resveratrol supplements to boost their SIRT1 in the hopes of living longer and healthier lives. But go and ask your GP for a prescription and I'm sure you know what they'll say.