Project Overview
Commodities
- Animals: bees
- Animal Products: honey
Practices
- Crop Production: beekeeping
- Education and Training: workshop
Abstract:
The overuse of antibiotics in agriculture has led to a public health crisis in increased antibiotic resistance and toxicity in our managed livestock and agricultural land. Thus, research into how antibiotics impact fundamental aspects of animal husbandry is essential to address this crisis. Western honeybees (Apis mellifera) are globally managed for their pollination services of our agricultural crops, contributing hundreds of billions of dollars to the global economy. The continual rise in annual commercial honeybee colony losses have raised major concerns about the future of agricultural crop yields and food security. The reliance on these important pollinators demands a constant evaluation of current honeybee management strategies and the mechanisms in which they may support colony health.
One such management strategy is the treatment of colonies with oxytetracycline (OTC), an antibiotic approved for livestock use, a strategy that has historically been the best strategy to prevent or treat devastating bacterial foulbrood diseases in colonies. OTC has been shown in previous literature to be detrimental to individual honeybee health and behavior in a lab setting. For example, fanning is an essential behavior vital to the success of honey bee colonies because it is thermoregulatory and maintains internal colony temperatures at 95°F for proper brood development. My previously published work, obtained in a laboratory setting, demonstrates that fanners treated with OTC are less likely to fan and are unable to quickly respond to heat stress. Such a disruption could have drastic effects at the colony level; however, whether the detrimental effects of OTC on individual honey bees can scale to affect whole colony health in a field realistic setting remains unclear. Understanding these dynamics is critical to properly assess OTC as a honey bee disease management strategy. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the effects of preventative OTC treatment on honeybee colonies in a field-realistic setting.
Our central hypothesis for this NCR-SARE project was that OTC treatment would impact colony performance and health over the beekeeping season. To test this hypothesis, we performed a field-based study in partnership with a local Wisconsin beekeeper, tracking the health and thermoregulation of 24 honey bee colonies, half of which were treated with OTC following FDA guidelines, from May through October 2024 in Wisconsin. We found support for our hypothesis that OTC impacts colonies: OTC treated colonies were more productive than non-treated colonies, likely because OTC treated colonies reared a larger workforce to collect more food earlier in the season. Our results provide a critical, nuanced examination into the benefits and risks of OTC treatment on honey bee colonies and have broad implications for the future of honey bee management. This research, which is the first NCR-SARE graduate student project that investigated OTC effects on honey bee colonies, has already been used to educate Wisconsin beekeepers on the pros and cons of OTC use, increasing local beekeeper awareness of this important management strategy. Furthermore, this research has been presented at international science conferences, won scientific talk competition, and is currently being prepared for scientific publication; thus, this research has already contributed much to our knowledge on the relationship between OTC and honey bee health both scientifically and locally.
These data are currently being prepared to be submitted to a scientific journal for peer review and publication. Once available, we will provide the publication link!
Project objectives:
Because of research exposing the effects of antibiotic use on honeybee health, in 2017, the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Veterinary Medicine passed the Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) initiative, which requires beekeepers to obtain a veterinary prescription to purchase antibiotics like OTC. However, many beekeepers have expressed concern that this initiative will lead to diseases like American Foulbrood to resurge and cause increased colony loss. Thus, there appears to be a lack of proper education on the purpose and usage of antibiotics like OTC and all the effects they have on honey bees. This lack of clear education may continue to fuel misunderstanding and off-brand use by beekeepers, and honey bee livelihood and even environmental health may continue to worsen as a result. Therefore, the following outcomes are expected on completion of my project:
Learning outcomes (through talks and presentations):
- Honey bee researchers will better understand the effect of OTC on colony health, productivity, and thermoregulation in a field-realistic setting
- Beekeepers will understand the benefits and risks of prophylactic OTC use for colony health and behavior and for the larger environment
Action outcomes (after attendance of talks and presentations):
- Beekeepers will slow or stop overreliance on antibiotics except when treating active diseases
- Beekeepers will be more aware of what factors can impact their colony management success
- Beekeepers will experience reduced financial strain in replacing their colonies annually
- Beekeepers will reduce their personal contributions to antibiotic pollution in the environment