Those with phobias about insects may cringe at the mere mention of the word “bee.” Entomologists, however, are now huddling together to get a closer look at the structure of bee life.
Moving Onto the Queen Bee and Food Vaccinations
One particular area of interest focuses on the queen bee. After all, she has thousands of children to rear and given the somewhat recent discussion of vaccinations/anti-vaccinations protests going on, it is somewhat fitting to shed light on a new study, which reveals that a queen bee actually protects her babies by vaccinating them. By doing so, they enter the world naturally inoculated.
The Queen Bee Vaccinates Her Kids?
However odd or extraordinary that sounds, it’s true. Bees naturally vaccinate against disease but how they do so is the question. Just today, however, a study from researchers at Arizona State University was published in the PLOS journal that highlights the process of food vaccination.
According to the study, vitellogenin is the specific protein that plays a vital role in bee inoculation. This is necessary because as a queen bee begins rearing children, workers that bring food to her often carry diseases back to the hive after a foray for pollen. Fortunately, the queen bee’s body is able to digest these bacteria in her gut, which later wind up stored in the queen’s “fat body,” an organ similar to a liver. After this happens, pieces of the pathogen binds to the aforementioned protein and then get transferred to babies through blood and blood protein. As a result, they are inadvertently vaccinated by food vaccination.
With this new information, scientists are now experimenting with the idea of creating edible food vaccinations, which can assist with the protection of declining insect populations. According to Dalial Freitak, the co-author of the study, “We are patenting a way to produce a harmless vaccine, as well as how to cultivate the vaccines and introduce them to bee hives through a cocktail the bees would eat. They would then be able to stave off disease.”
