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A Vaccine For Bees | Earth Wise

February 27, 2023 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

USDA grants conditional license for a honey bee vaccine

The US has seen annual reductions in honey bee colonies since 2006.  According to the USDA, there are many factors that have contributed to the decline.  These include parasites, pests, insecticides, disease, and a phenomenon called Colony Collapse Disorder in which worker bees abandon a hive and leave behind the queen.

One of major threats to bee colonies is American foulbrood disease, which is a bacterial condition that attacks bee larvae.  It is highly contagious and has no cure.  Until now, the only treatment method required burning the colony of infected bees along with the hives and equipment and treating nearby bee colonies with antibiotics.

Recently, the USDA has approved a conditional license for the world’s first vaccine for honey bees.  The vaccine contains inactive bacteria of the type that causes American foulbrood disease.

The vaccine is incorporated into the royal jelly fed by worker bees to the queen bee.  The queen ingests the feed and keeps some of vaccine in her ovaries.  This gives bee larvae immunity to the disease as they hatch and thereby reduces death from the illness.

According to the California State Beekeepers Association, the new vaccine could be a major breakthrough for protecting bees.  Preventing the infection in hives could avoid costly, destructive measures and allow the beekeepers to focus on other important elements of keeping bees healthy.

Bees as pollinators play a critical role in many ecosystems.  For humankind, pollinators such as bees, birds, and bats are responsible for about a third of the world’s crop production.

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US approves world’s first vaccine for declining honey bees

Photo, posted June 6, 2022, courtesy of Bernd Thaller via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio

Trading Rhino Horn And Tiger Bone

November 21, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/EW-11-21-18-Trading-Rhino-Horn-and-Tiger-Bone.mp3

Historically, rhino horn and tiger bone were used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat various illnesses, despite the lack of any evidence of their effectiveness.  In fact, rhino horn is simply keratin, a protein that is found in human fingernails and hair.  Rhino horn is used to treat everything from cancer to gout in traditional Chinese medicine.  Similarly, a paste made from crushed tiger bone is thought to treat a variety of ailments, including rheumatism and back pain.

[Read more…] about Trading Rhino Horn And Tiger Bone

A Bad Food Patch

May 14, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/EW-05-14-18-A-Bad-Food-Patch.mp3

A group of scientists and engineers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, has developed a new technology that could replace traditional “best before” dates on food and beverages with a definitive indication of the safety of the product.

[Read more…] about A Bad Food Patch

Raw Wastewater On Farms

August 21, 2017 By EarthWise

https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/EW-08-21-17-Raw-Wastewater-on-Farms.mp3

Clean water supplies are dwindling around the world.  As a result, the use of untreated wastewater on farms for crop irrigation is on the rise. 

[Read more…] about Raw Wastewater On Farms

Doing More Harm Than Good

August 1, 2017 By EarthWise

https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/EW-08-01-17-Antibacterials.mp3

A group of more than 200 scientists and medical professionals has issued a consensus statement in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives urging that antimicrobial chemicals like triclosan and triclocarban should not be used in consumer products.  The experts say that these substances offer no health benefits and are actually causing health and environmental harm.

[Read more…] about Doing More Harm Than Good

The Tick Project

September 12, 2016 By WAMC WEB

https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/EW-09-12-16-The-Tick-Project.mp3

Tiny ticks are a big problem. Anyone taking a walk in the woods is advised to do a tick check. Ticks infect more than 325,000 people with Lyme disease each year, and this number continues to rise.

[Read more…] about The Tick Project

Antibiotic Apocalypse

December 18, 2015 By WAMC WEB

https://earthwiseradio.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/EW-12-18-15-Antibiotic-Apocalypse.mp3

Virtually everyone listening to this radio segment has relied on antibiotics to treat a bacterial infection. Since the 1940’s, we’ve used antibiotics to combat everything from strep throat to sinus infections. They also play an important role in surgery and cancer therapies.

[Read more…] about Antibiotic Apocalypse

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